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OK, maybe I can get some perspective from you all. Here's the background. I work for a particular government ministry in New Zealand, which shall remain nameless. We were just forced, uh, requested to take a Plain English writing course. Other than it being anal in the extreme, the upshot was that we were to write everything as if the audience was 12 years old. Including the minister. In my 30 year career (all except the past 2 years were in the US) I have tended – silly me – to write for people who are maybe 40-50 years old with advanced degrees, and along the way have been complimented for my writing by any number of writers, editors, and assorted other pretty smart people.
So. Can anyone talk me into feeling that this is reasonable or acceptable or something? I'm not looking for snipes at politicians or the NZ education system. I can supply those myself. I'm wondering if I'm over-reacting, or if this really is incontrovertible proof that the end times are upon us.
It is unpleasant and frustrating to write in an uncomfortable or unfamiliar style. Beyond that, I'd need to know more about the intent of the writing to comment intelligently. Is the writing for a public audience? Does the material need to be styled for rapid comprehension? Is the need for a detailed and thorough summary that readers can absorb over time for a balanced familiarity?
I have the same questions as Glenn. Who is the intended audience and what is the purpose of the writing? I too, have been complimented on my writing, but I still change my style depending on my audience. Two additional points: I hold an advanced degree, but that doesn't mean I want to wade through a wordy, convoluted document...and if I remember correctly, most newspapers are written at an 8th grade level.
I decided to put each one of your texts into Microsoft WORD. It has a spelling and grammer checker which calculates readibility statistics. For the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level you scored:
stevenz 8.1
Glenn 9.2
Word Nerd 8.5
I just thought you might like to know.
Emmett
BTW, as I was completing my Ph.D. (in my 25th year of schooling) I was finally let in on a rule for writing--It is the writer's responsibility to communicate with his audience; it is not the reader's responsibility to figure out what the writer was trying to say. This and other practical writing rules finally communicated to this left-brained physicist what right-brained english teachers did not succeed in doing in 14 years of schooling.
It's a blanket rule: write everything as if for a 12 year old. Prime Minister, Mayor Smith, Thomas the Tank Engine, whoever. Letters, reports, everything. Fine to say that it's the responsibility of the writer to communicate, but were your physics texts written for 12 year olds? If they were I would have done better in physics. I'm feeling like my intellectual capacity, such that it is, is not being tapped at all, and that important decisions are made on minimal information. (Dirty secret from the public policy world: Your elected officials aren't interested in information.) Maybe I'm a snob, but if nobody is a snob then we all have the intellect of 12 year olds. Sorry, folks, but I think there is something wrong with that. Because it won't stop at 12.
I feel confused trying to interpret my score. I think most AWWW participants are grade 12 or above. Am I 3 years from obtaining my theoretical AWWW discussion GED? Or am I a condescending verbal jackass? Both?
Glenn,
As I understand it, the score is mainly calculated by the number of words per sentence and the length of the words. Also, those statistics were generated from a short passage; there could be large error bars in them with respect to your overall all writing level.
"See Dick run," is from my first grade reader and if your writing averaged 3 words per sentence, you could be "Both". Remember, this forum may also be a place of less formal writing.
If your writing doesn't sound childish (and it does not), it is fine whatever the statistics say.
Emmett
Fine to say that it's the responsibility of the writer to communicate, but were your physics texts written for 12 year olds?
stevenz,
I do not have an easy source of text to determine the reading level of my physics texts. However, I do have an email exchange describing relativistic energy conservation, thread starting here. The text of my two exchanges on 7-30-008 scored 10.7 and 9.9; on 7-31-008 text scored 11.5.
I have to go to class.
Emmett
Stevenz- I understand your frustration, and can empathize. I was a provider in a clinic, and once had to argue with an insurance reviewer because she didn't understand the information in my report. She wanted to know why a child who scored in the 1st percentile needed therapy services. I was annoyed (and still am), but it was good lesson. The reviewer's background was as an LPN. I was assuming that my audience (physicians, rehab therapists, insurance reviewers) all had a common knowledge base (e.g. statistics)....but I was wrong (but does 1st percentile even sound like a good thing?). Since then, I explicitly spell out everything that I feel is important (even writing. "this means that..."). Your situation may be similiar. You may need to clearly explain the information because even though your audience may be the Prime Minister, he may not be bringing the same context/background knowledge to the report as you are. You may assume he is, but you know what happens when we assume....
The text of my two exchanges on 7-30-008 scored 10.7 and 9.9; on 7-31-008 text scored 11.5.
The point I was trying to make is that one can discuss difficult subjects without making the writing level too high. As a teacher, I know the value and necessity of teaching at a student's level. This is easier to do verbally because of the immediate feedback when someone does not understand. (I used the term "bailiwick" in a school board meeting once and a fellow board member incredulously asked, "What? I told him a definition which he doubted. But there was an unabridged dictionary in the library where we were meeting and I had him look it up. This story points out that I do not hesitate to use my vocabulary. But, I also do not get offended or frustrated if I must explain a word I use. But, writing is different; it does not have the immediate feedback.)
BTW, I take it as a challenge to explain complex ideas in simple enough terms for my audience to understand. Cultivating this skill may also help my grandchildren.
Emmett
EmmettRedd said:
It is the writer's responsibility to communicate with his audience; it is not the reader's responsibility to figure out what the writer was trying to say.
Hear, hear! At least for non-artistic writing.
The big danger of trying to write for the higher-end education is that people don't all learn the same things at the higher grades. For one thing, some people get technical degrees, others get liberal arts, some get literature degrees. Also, as Martha and Grant discuss all the time, there are endless cases of words and phrases that seem perfectly intuitive and commonplace to some people, but not others, because of age, region, etc.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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