Lesson 1: Splitting messages into words and sentences
53 min read·14 Oct 2026
Module 2 · Lesson 1 · About 40 minutes · Needs: basic Python and regular expressions (Module 1, Lesson 3)
The situation
It is Monday 14 September 2026, week 2 of the project. Every method Rosa will see from here on, from word counts to classifiers, starts from the same first step: cutting a message into pieces. Ines forwards message TW-M0806 as a test: "Spoke snapped on my Volt 2 after two rides. That's not normal wear, surely? Bought 31 May, order TW-112756. 🚲"
You need its words and its sentences. That sounds like one line of Python. This lesson shows why it is not, and how to choose a tool by measuring them all on the same messages.