Slightly off-topic, but I would recommend using the SMOG Index rather than FKT - there's some academic work done that indicates FKT actually /underestimates/ the reading difficulty of a sentence. And, of course, it is difficult for the results to be transparent to people outside the United States.
On 21 May 2013 09:47, Florence Devouard <[email protected]> wrote: > On 5/21/13 5:45 AM, Sumana Harihareswara wrote: > >> When you're trying to write a blog.wikimedia.org entry or >> wikitech-ambassadors email about a technical topic, but you want to make >> sure nontechnical Wikimedians can read it, is there an automated check >> you can run through? >> > > <I can not help making that comment given the topic of your email, sorry> > > I read this sentence at least 4 times, trying to figure out what you meant. > > At first sight, I thought some words were missing (when... but... >>> > usually, a "when" is followed by a "then" not by a "but"). > > Then I realized that the "but" part was to be read as an additional > comment and that what matters was actually "when" followed by a question. I > then thought "is that a question to us" ? At second sight, it actually > looks to be a question to us. I started thinking "what is meant by > automated check" ??? > > I thought the next paragraph would bring some light on what you meant by > "automated check" so that it would become possible to answer your question > (just wanted to help...) > > Last, I realize that the question was actually meant from you, to us. But > was supposed to be a point we were actually wondering about. And that your > email was actually an answer to this prospective question (in case we might > wonder). The question was not a question. > > Actually the rest of the explanation uses only one expression that are > unknown to me ("whip up a script") but I am happy to say I understood the > general meaning. Still, I would suggest avoid weird sentences such as > "when... but... is there ?". Be straight to the point. > > For information, the grade of your email is : Average Grade Level 8.7 > (yeah !) > Which is good on the paper (sort of paper). But still was hard to > understand. I am still not quite sure what the goal of your email exactly > was :( > > But I loved the link to > http://www.readability-score.**com/<http://www.readability-score.com/>:) > > Flo > > My own grade is 5.9... > > > > For general readability we have > http://www.readability-score.**com/<http://www.readability-score.com/>to >> check, for example, the Flesch-Kincaid reading ease. My blog entry >> https://blog.wikimedia.org/**2013/02/05/how-the-technical-** >> operations-team-stops-**problems-in-their-tracks/<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/05/how-the-technical-operations-team-stops-problems-in-their-tracks/> >> has a grade level of 11.5, meaning that it would be difficult for >> someone to read it unless they had about as much English fluency as an >> average US student in their last year of pre-college schooling. In the >> future I will probably aim more for a grade level of 10 or so; we have a >> lot of non-native English speakers in our community. I think it's too >> difficult to rewrite everything in Up-Goer 5 http://splasho.com/upgoer5/ >> or Simple English Wikipedia style, even for regular-person-friendly blog >> entries about WMF Engineering,[0] but I am willing to be told if I am >> wrong. >> >> Aside from general readability, I also want to be careful about using >> jargon, and substitute more accessible terminology where possible. I may >> whip up a script to check whether some text has words from >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/**wiki/Glossary<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Glossary>and >> the other site glossaries >> in it, unless someone has a better idea. >> >> > > > ______________________________**_________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list > [email protected].**org <[email protected]> > Unsubscribe: > https://lists.wikimedia.org/**mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l<https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l> > -- Oliver Keyes Community Liaison, Product Development Wikimedia Foundation _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
