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01/26/2003 Entry: "Easy Speak"
From Easy Speak, a blog which says it offers "Pointers to using plain language from an author who has done a lot of it."
"People like Flesch and Gunning studied what adults read. They found that all successful magazines and English best sellers, including the King James Version of the Bible, kept their reading level at or below the 12th grade. For example, Gunning found: Francis Bacon used an average 28 words a sentence. Captain John Smith used an average 16 words a sentence. Thomas Paine, writing "The American Crisis" ("These are the times that try men's souls…"), wrote at a 7th-grade reading level. Gunning wrote, 'It appears from our own investigation that in all ages there have been men with something to say who wrote comparatively simply.' "
Replies:
My first news director told me to write for the public at a Canadian grade 8 level, with short sentences.
I still get misunderstood, but it works. Blog on!
Posted by Bene Diction @ 01/26/2003 03:25 PM CST
