Growing Africa’s Internet use
Growing Africa’s Internet use: Top down vs bottom up - Which way is up?
Growing Africa’s Internet use: Top down vs bottom up - Which way is up?
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Growing Africa’s Internet use: Top down vs bottom up
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Gatecrasher
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Man, these BalancingAct articles are hard work. Flesch readability score: 44.1%. Flesh-Kincaid grade level scale: 12.3.
No wonder there are so few comments. If you want a readership these days you have to aim at 5th graders.
No wonder there are so few comments. If you want a readership these days you have to aim at 5th graders.
The same goes for Gatecrasher's posts 
For those who, like me, have no idea what Gatecrasher is referring to, here is a definition:
The Flesch/Flesch–Kincaid readability tests are designed to indicate comprehension difficulty when reading a passage of contemporary academic English. There are two tests, the Flesch Reading Easiness, and the Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level. Although they use the same core measures (word length and sentence length), they have different weighting factors, so the results of the two tests correlate approximately inversely: a text with a comparatively high score on the Reading Ease test should have a lower score on the Grade Level test. Both systems were devised by Rudolf Flesch.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesch–Kincaid_readability_test
Off-Topic, but very interesting (Thanks Gatecrasher). I checked a few authors on MyBB, and Balancingact is by far the most difficult to read. The rest are close together, with Alastair's writing style the easiest to read.
I guess the question is what one should aim for online: I don’t have a particularly strong linguistic ability whereas Russell Bennett in my view has an excellent command of the English language. Very different writing styles, but a similar score…
For those who, like me, have no idea what Gatecrasher is referring to, here is a definition:
The Flesch/Flesch–Kincaid readability tests are designed to indicate comprehension difficulty when reading a passage of contemporary academic English. There are two tests, the Flesch Reading Easiness, and the Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level. Although they use the same core measures (word length and sentence length), they have different weighting factors, so the results of the two tests correlate approximately inversely: a text with a comparatively high score on the Reading Ease test should have a lower score on the Grade Level test. Both systems were devised by Rudolf Flesch.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesch–Kincaid_readability_test
Off-Topic, but very interesting (Thanks Gatecrasher). I checked a few authors on MyBB, and Balancingact is by far the most difficult to read. The rest are close together, with Alastair's writing style the easiest to read.
I guess the question is what one should aim for online: I don’t have a particularly strong linguistic ability whereas Russell Bennett in my view has an excellent command of the English language. Very different writing styles, but a similar score…
Last edited:
Gatecrasher
Executive Member
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- Jan 11, 2005
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The higher the better, I would think. Of course, you wouldn't want news articles that read like Dr Seuss. But text can be both easy to read and well written. For example, Harry Potter books score around 80% and are enjoyed by children and adults alike.
I wonder how many people read this article from top to bottom. I got a couple of paragraphs in and decided that life is much too short, but not so short that I couldn't have some fun with it!
I wonder how many people read this article from top to bottom. I got a couple of paragraphs in and decided that life is much too short, but not so short that I couldn't have some fun with it!