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Steps to finding the Mean Length of Utterance

The mean length of utterance is the number of words in a sentence on average in the narrative. Any sentence that is significantly above or below the mean is considered to be deceptive. In order to calculate the MLU, take the following steps:

1. Count the number of words in each sentence in the narrative.

2. Total up the number of words in all sentences for the total word count in the narrative.

3. Count the number of sentences in the narrative.

4. Divide the total narrative word count by the number of sentences to obtain the MLU.

5. Identify any sentences that are significantly above or below the MLU. A very convenient way of doing this is to figure the standard deviation from the mean and use it as a guideline. For example, if the MLU is 17 words per sentence and the standard deviation is 5, then the range is from 12 to 22. Therefore any sentences that are 11 words or less or 23 words or more are highly suspect of being deceptive. Also as in the above example, a good rule of thumb is to assume your standard deviation is going to be somewhere around 5 and just use it to determine if the sentence is significantly above or below the MLU.