Writing

Readable Writing
by Mazin Heiderson
Readability can refer to legibility or to the structure of sentences. Legibility deals with typeface and layout. It belongs to the world of printers and publishers.

The structural features of a text are the concerns of the writer. If a piece doesn’t communicate, then it has failed its primary goal. All communication has 3 elements: Sender--Message--Receiver. Contrary to common belief, it is the reader not the writer who decides if the message works. If the reader doesn’t understand the message, then the writer missed the target. No alibis or “power trips” by the writer will change the facts.

The writer aims his or her message at a particular audience. Without an audience (readers), the writer is not engaged in communication. It might be psychotherapy or something else and readability does not enter into it.

Readability considers the reader’s age and his level of education. Researchers discovered how easy or difficult to understand a passages can be. They did this by applying a readability formula to a piece of writing. Then they asked readers in certain grade levels questions about the passage. If readers can answer the questions then it was at that grade level. The best of these formulas, Flesch-Kincaid, has a correlation of .91. That is close to a perfect score (1.0).

The elements that make writing difficult to read are:
  - Long sentences.
  - Words over 2 syllables.
  - Passive voice.
  -Complex sentences.
  -Adverbs.

Microsoft Word has Spelling and Grammar check. You can find it under the Tool Menu.  The program will do spell check and give you 2 different readability scores. One of the calculations is the Flesch-Kincaid grade level. But if you don’t have Microsoft Word, you can paste your text online in a free readability calculator. Online calculators usually give you up to 7 different readability scores. You either type the message or cut and paste it from a word processing program.

If you have $20 to spare, you can buy the Hemingway Editor software and install it on your PC or Mac. Hemingway Editor shows you any one of 5 types of problems by color code and the number in each fault. It gives you suggestions for fixing the problems. Hemingway Editor also gives you a readability grade level as well as reading time. There are other features that allow you to export or publish your message.

Finally, let’s look at readability scores for some familiar stuff:
 - Harry Potter - 5th Grade
 - Average reading level of American Adults - 7th-8th Grade
 - New York Times - 10th Grade
 - Romance Novels - 5th Grade
 - Nancy Drew Books - 3rd to 6th Grade
 - Most newspapers: 6th Grade
 - Hemingway, Old Man and the Sea: 4th Grade
 - John Grisham: 8th Grade
 - Leo Tolstoy: 8th Grade
 - Danielle Steel: 8th Grade
 - Stephen King: 6th Grade
 - Jane Austen: 5th Grade
 - J.R.R. Tolkien: 6th Grade
 - Tom Clancy: 8th Grade
 - Affordable Care Act: Grade 13 (one year of college)

Writing As A Craft
by  Mazin  Heiderson​
There is nothing natural about writing. It’s an invention that dates to the NewStone Age, about 4000 years ago. That's less than 1% of human history. Its purpose is to make a more durable record of communication. Over time, the medium has changed. It evolved from stone, to fired brick, to leather, to paper, to electronic screens.
 
As a technology, writing developed various ways of coding languages. Some relied on pictures, others used syllables, and still others used sound symbols. None of these systems are perfect. They use different scripts with their own spelling rules. Some even leave out vowel sounds. That makes reading harder.

All writing systems use sentences to communicate. These become like molds. Writers pour sentences and phrases into the molds to create messages. The  patterns “feel normal” for the language. With practice anyone can become a good writer. People learn to write by reading a lot and copying sentence types of successful writers. These are the necessary first steps.

There are no shortcuts. It takes about 10,000 hours, roughly 10 years, to get good at it. Talented craftsman sometimes create new styles. That is the difference between Art and Craft. A craftsman copies styles. An artist copies styles and also creates new ones.