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Subject:Dumbing it down From:"Amy G. Peacock" <apeacock -at- WOLFENET -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 8 Dec 1998 17:25:59 -0800
Hi all,
I just finished using the grammar checker in Word so that I could get
some readability scores on my docs. That used to be alot easier than
it is now - or maybe I am just doing it wrong...
At any rate, my question isn't really about the grammar tool in Word.
It's more about having to dumb down a document to a certain grade
level of reading. The dumber the better it seems. My purpose in using
the tool in the first place was to show the higherups (they do like to
see those numbers, don't they?) that my words really aren't too
big, etc. One doc had a readability level of 5.3 and the other had a
level of 7.2. Not too bad, I thought.
How do the rest of you deal with this kind of attitude? I am all for
making the docment easy to read, simple, clear, and so on - but there
comes a time when I reach my limit, and my willingness to be helpful
to the user turns to irritation and frustration. I think I know my
audience pretty well and I always strive to produce something helpful
to them.
Amy Peacock
techwriter & jewelrymaker
Snohomish, Washington
apeacock -at- wolfenet -dot- com
"How do I set my laser printer to stun?"
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