The Key to Good Writing is Simple Writing.

[brendanconnell]

I just did an experiment. I had two books come out in 2014, The Metanatural Adventures of Dr. Black, and The Galaxy Club. I ran chapters of each through the Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease thing. Dr. Black is grade level 5.7, The Galaxy Club grade 7. Now, I don’t know who here is familiar with Dr. Black, but does anyone really think that it is at say 6th grade reading level? As for The Galaxy Club, this reviewer didn’t seem to find it at grade 7: The Galaxy Club by Brendan Connell. Book review | The British Fantasy Society I quote the reviewer: “The style is at times engaging and at others impenetrable, whole chapters written with no punctuation forcing the reader to determine where a sentence finishes and the next picks, everything bundled together into an intentional flow of incoherence. The story can be tough going at times, being told from multiple points of view whilst jumping back and forth in the narrative’s timeline, with Connell encouraging you to keep up with him rather than spoon-feeding the reader.” I think this whole thing is bull####. That “reading ease” thing is total nonsense.

[qcrisp]

Quote Originally Posted by brendanconnell

I just did an experiment. I had two books come out in 2014, The Metanatural Adventures of Dr. Black, and The Galaxy Club. I ran chapters of each through the Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease thing. Dr. Black is grade level 5.7, The Galaxy Club grade 7. Now, I don’t know who here is familiar with Dr. Black, but does anyone really think that it is at say 6th grade reading level? As for The Galaxy Club, this reviewer didn’t seem to find it at grade 7: The Galaxy Club by Brendan Connell. Book review | The British Fantasy Society I quote the reviewer: “The style is at times engaging and at others impenetrable, whole chapters written with no punctuation forcing the reader to determine where a sentence finishes and the next picks, everything bundled together into an intentional flow of incoherence. The story can be tough going at times, being told from multiple points of view whilst jumping back and forth in the narrative’s timeline, with Connell encouraging you to keep up with him rather than spoon-feeding the reader.” I think this whole thing is bull####. That “reading ease” thing is total nonsense.

Well, this is because of the assumption that adding a machine to the process of any enquiry will increase the accuracy and intelligence of the results. I suppose I don't have to spell out the various ways in which this contributes to the whole dumbing down process. Outsourced thinking.

[Revenant]

I should have clarified when I said a "4th grade level" I was referring to vocabulary only. Not content or concept.

[brendanconnell]

Revenant - I don't think this thing is even accurate with vocabulary. For instance in the part I put in that gave 5.7 reading level, we have such phrases as: "Tsukemono rice balls" "incubatio" "Lankavatara Sutra" and "nezumisashi".

[Druidic]

Check out Terry Dowling's remarks on writing and how dumbing down has stylistic repercussions...as in the use of 'err'...

Harlan Ellisons Watching 5 - YouTube