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Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

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Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

#151

Post by Semiapies »

consum3dbyfire wrote: post #45
AndrewUnmuted wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The technique is working quite well for Donald Trump: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/09/15/ho... > Some of his answers last only a few seconds, some are slightly longer, but almost all consist of simple sentences, grammatically and conceptually, and most of them withhold their most important word or phrase until the very end. Trump’s sentences end with a pop, and he seems to know instinctively wh…

Looks like the creator picked up on that, as well: https://medium.com/@mortenjust/i-doomed-mankind-with-a-free-...

I'd say anyone who says he's made a language/special vocabulary/style guide/editor that "makes it hard to write bullshit" really hasn't picked up on that.

Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

#152

Post by jdavis703 »

gregschlom wrote: post #24

Am I the only one to find that using only the 1,000 most common words actually makes thing harder to understand? The writer ends up having to use convoluted paraphrases to refer to things where a precise, well defined and well understood word exists but it's not part of the top 1,000.

Genuine question: have you ever tried to learn a foreign language? At least for me long sentences, with easier, more common, words are easier to understand.

Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

#154

Post by suchow »

DanBC wrote: post #131
cowardlydragon wrote: post #36

How about a standard translator that takes generally accepted conversions of more complex language constructs into simpler language? How about a thing that changes less well known words and puts in easier words?

If you come up with a way to automagically translate things into easier English you could probably sell it to various UK government / NHS / etc organisations, who all have a duty to make much of their communication available in "Easy Read". Here's the Equality Act Easy read version: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm... And the Equality Act non-easy read: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/…

Similarly, in the U.S. there is the Plain Writing Act of 2010 (http://www.plainlanguage.gov/plLaw/).

Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

#155

Post by Retra »

hackbinary wrote: post #43
gregschlom wrote: post #24

Am I the only one to find that using only the 1,000 most common words actually makes thing harder to understand? The writer ends up having to use convoluted paraphrases to refer to things where a precise, well defined and well understood word exists but it's not part of the top 1,000.

Maybe the author is just out by an order of magnitude? Maybe it should be 10,000 words?

Maybe it should be the 1000 least ambiguous words.

Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

#156

Post by WalterBright »

bane wrote: post #146
rewrew wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is interesting. What about languages other than English? Any idea about the avg. word count needed to learn them? (Used on TV does seem like a good benchmark for "learned). Or is it roughly the same for every language, do you think?

"being able to read a newspaper" is a typical goal for pre-fluency language acquisition. In most languages I'm aware of the number of words required to do that is something around 1500-3000.

Yes. But I read somewhere that a newspaper vocabulary is targeted at somewhere around a 5th grade reading level.

Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

#157

Post by theonemind »

gregschlom wrote: post #24

Am I the only one to find that using only the 1,000 most common words actually makes thing harder to understand? The writer ends up having to use convoluted paraphrases to refer to things where a precise, well defined and well understood word exists but it's not part of the top 1,000.

I tried this, and very quickly found that out. Thereafter, I considered very carefully whether any word that wasn't in the most common 1,000 was worth introducing, and used the top 1,000 freely. That ended up working pretty well. When I found a word that really helped, I added it to the list of words I could continue to use for what I was writing.

Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

#158

Post by escherize »

gnaritas wrote: post #145
AndrewUnmuted wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The technique is working quite well for Donald Trump: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/09/15/ho... > Some of his answers last only a few seconds, some are slightly longer, but almost all consist of simple sentences, grammatically and conceptually, and most of them withhold their most important word or phrase until the very end. Trump’s sentences end with a pop, and he seems to know instinctively wh…

He speaks like a child, it works because his base is stupid and they relate. It's not a skill, he just isn't that bright.

Dude, that's not an argument - that's a whole bunch of ad hominems. Could you bring an argument against Trump at least instead of literally smearing him and his supporters? The guy is acknowledged to have won (basically) every republican debate.. would you suggest a child can do that?

Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

#159

Post by ottumm »

huac wrote: post #139
awjr wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally use http://www.hemingwayapp.com/ when I think I've gone a bit lazy in the way I have written an article.

Huh, I usually only associate Hemingway with "write drunk edit sober."

You should read more Hemingway.

Re: Cleartext: A text editor that only allows the 1,000 most common words in English

#160

Post by escherize »

manachar wrote: post #123
AndrewUnmuted wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The technique is working quite well for Donald Trump: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/09/15/ho... > Some of his answers last only a few seconds, some are slightly longer, but almost all consist of simple sentences, grammatically and conceptually, and most of them withhold their most important word or phrase until the very end. Trump’s sentences end with a pop, and he seems to know instinctively wh…

I'm with Orwell on this one. Whether by design or "happy" accident, Trump exemplifies the trend for politicians to be vague. Or as he puts it, speaking like this "is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_and_the_English_Langu...

Is this the syllogism?

    Trump uses political language
    political language makes murder respectable
    ------
    Trump makes murder respectable
Why focus on Trump then? Care to name a politician who's not using political language? That seems to be an oxymoron.

Trump was against the Iraq War, probably the biggest killing event of the last xxx years.

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