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What makes writing more readable?

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Re: What makes writing more readable?

#91

Post by IshKebab »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #54

Surprised no one has mentioned Flesch-Kincaid yet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesch%E2%80%93Kincaid_readabi... There's also social register. More complex writing/speaking assumes knowledge of cultural markers which are intended to exclude those who aren't familiar with them. So writers/readers can use them as caste markers. Simplification has to be a mix of as-simple-as-possible with as-neutral-as-possible. I don…

It is mentioned in the article. They give it as an example of a pretty useless reading level algorithm.

I would have thought GPT-3 or similar could probably solve the reading level algorithm problem very easily. I thought that's where the article was going to be honest.

I agree the NHS pages are very clearly written.

Re: What makes writing more readable?

#93

Post by nebari »

macintux wrote: post #22
d0gbread wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way they rephrased also simply omitted detail, which doesn't seem like a fair comparison. I'd much rather see an example where no detail is lost but would still have wider comprehension. Literally dumbing it down by stripping detail doesn't seem like a clear best practice.

It’s impossible to express the same content using simpler words without making the text much longer, which defeats the purpose of making it easier to read. The more precise a term is, the more it expresses without added verbiage, but it’s also less likely to be widely understood.

This rather mixes simpler/more difficult and shorter/longer as equivalent - even interchangeable - aspects of writing. But these are not transitive: shorter is not simpler, nor is simpler (i.e., more understandable) necessarily shorter; similarly, a longer piece isn't more difficult simply by its length.

Writing is hard; writing clearly - more understandably - is harder yet. Writing precisely, which would link some concepts of length/wordiness directly with understandability and clarity, is the hardest of all.

"If I Had More Time, I Would Have Written a Shorter Letter" - Blaise Pascal

Re: What makes writing more readable?

#94

Post by sandworm101 »

zschuessler wrote: post #12

These tips were centered around simplification, and they are good tips. For documentation and technical writing in particular, I picked up a few mannerisms that I now use every time I write. The biggest impact has been to have a goal of limiting a paragraph to 2-3 sentences. From this goal my other writing traits came naturally. When starting a paragraph, start off with a blunt statement that summarizes the paragraph…

Short paragraphs are great in an online forum. In anything else they become very difficult. And starting paragraphs with one-sentence points is a gradeschool rule. Often a two-sentence point is more effective (see above). The only universal answer to becoming a better writer is to read more. Read material from people you think are good writers. The more good writing you read the easier it will be for you to create your own. But watch/read too much british stuff, accidentally call an elevator a lift, and everyone thinks you are british spy.

Re: What makes writing more readable?

#95

Post by naniwaduni »

zschuessler wrote: post #12

These tips were centered around simplification, and they are good tips. For documentation and technical writing in particular, I picked up a few mannerisms that I now use every time I write. The biggest impact has been to have a goal of limiting a paragraph to 2-3 sentences. From this goal my other writing traits came naturally. When starting a paragraph, start off with a blunt statement that summarizes the paragraph…

While I admire your commitment to practicing what you preach, I can't help but think that you've taken it further than it's meant to go, though in a way that's hard to place. But it feels ... abrupt. Offensively effusive. A stream of emphatic points without a break.

Re: What makes writing more readable?

#96

Post by pessimizer »

rogual wrote: post #4

There are some improvements in the "more readable" text, but also some noticeable regressions: "Born premature" is an established turn of phrase. You read it, you know exactly what is meant. "Born early" is not an established phrase. You have to think about it more. It could mean "born early in the morning" or "born before her time" or "born prematurely". You can figure it out, it's not rocket science, but it's a lit…

> "She has trouble seeing" is not as clear as the original "...which has impacted [...] eyesight". True, "impacted" is unwieldy and could be improved, but the causal link between the premature birth and the health difficulties is no longer explicit and must now be inferred, taking more mental effort from the reader.

It's even worse, because "seeing" is often used metaphorically e.g. "She has trouble seeing his point" and "She has trouble seeing how she can find a job." "Eyesight" specifies that the seeing we're talking about has to do with eyes.

Re: What makes writing more readable?

#97

Post by sandworm101 »

feoren wrote: post #70
scythmic_waves wrote: post #20

"Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That's why it's so hard." - David McCullough I agree with many of the other posts here. Some of the translations highlighted in the article seem to either lose important information or introduce confusing information. The most striking example for me was the translation from > A strong tremor in her hand makes it impossible for her to use American Sign Language…

Agreed. I found the first sentence immediately understandable, and the second one confusing and ambiguous. > A strong tremor in her hand The fact that "tremor" is uncommon helped me instantly understand that this was a medical condition, and "strong" helped me understand that it's debilitating for her. It sounds long-lived, if not permanent. > Her hand shakes Ok ... is it a medical condition, or a nervous tick, or ju…

And dropping "american" both changes the meaning and reveals the mind of the translator. There are other sign languages, some perhaps easier for those with hand tremors. I think it safe to say that only a fellow american would drop that adjective to make the sentence more readable.

Re: What makes writing more readable?

#98

Post by mabub24 »

e12e wrote: post #79
mabub24 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO, this style is most effective on a screen, and on a phone screen at that. This style does not fare well on the page, nor if you're trying to write on a complicated subject. It has the unfortunate feeling of superficiality. Many ideas or points require more than 2 or 3 sentences of explanation. And some ideas require many, many, sentences to present and explain. Worse, too many paragraph breaks can disrupt the flo…

> Read some Henry James and you'll see walls of text that achieve a stunning clarity all their own. I take it you mean his non-fiction, given the subject? I stumbled on this - I'd be happy to hear some other recommendations - this isn't prose I'd generally look for in a contemporary text that tries to teach a subject - it's too dense for that, I believe: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/60040/60040-h/60040-h.htm#Pa...…

I was recommending Henry James in reference to readers attention spans, who often balk at the idea of reading anything quite as dense as from James' writings. But they're missing out. His famous Chp. 42 from Portrait of a Lady is the single best articulation of personal reflection on a failed marriage I have ever read - ever. [0] Losing out on that simply because it's a big imposing paragraph suggests an unwillingness to challenge oneself, which, I think at least, is only to our loss as our attention spans wane.

Specifically for non-fiction, I would recommend R.G. Collingwood, a philosopher of ordinary language who was writing in the late 1930's. His writing, like many philosophers from that time, balances depth with clarity with stunning skill. His introduction to his book "The Principles of Art"[1] is one of my favorite bits of writing ever because of just how clear it is. The paragraphs are often long, but they are meticulously edited to keep forward momentum, and a sense of dawning awareness of a problem which he is solving, present without dragging the reader down. Most of all they are calm. It never seems rushed, or forced, or over-pruned. It's a rhetorical style of instruction that only works when you incorporate length into your writing.

As an aside, the first sentence in the introduction is one of my favorite openings of all time. "The business of this book is to answer the question: What is art?"

---

[0]: http://www.online-literature.com/henry_james/portrait_lady/4...

[1]: https://books.google.ca/books?id=SXpMC9416y4C&printsec=front...

Re: What makes writing more readable?

#99

Post by markcmyers »

mabub24 wrote: post #77
zschuessler wrote: post #12

These tips were centered around simplification, and they are good tips. For documentation and technical writing in particular, I picked up a few mannerisms that I now use every time I write. The biggest impact has been to have a goal of limiting a paragraph to 2-3 sentences. From this goal my other writing traits came naturally. When starting a paragraph, start off with a blunt statement that summarizes the paragraph…

IMO, this style is most effective on a screen, and on a phone screen at that. This style does not fare well on the page, nor if you're trying to write on a complicated subject. It has the unfortunate feeling of superficiality. Many ideas or points require more than 2 or 3 sentences of explanation. And some ideas require many, many, sentences to present and explain. Worse, too many paragraph breaks can disrupt the flo…

You're pulling our leg, right?

Re: What makes writing more readable?

#100

Post by sandworm101 »

yhoneycomb wrote: post #84
zschuessler wrote: post #12

These tips were centered around simplification, and they are good tips. For documentation and technical writing in particular, I picked up a few mannerisms that I now use every time I write. The biggest impact has been to have a goal of limiting a paragraph to 2-3 sentences. From this goal my other writing traits came naturally. When starting a paragraph, start off with a blunt statement that summarizes the paragraph…

> I try to break up a document into different types of formatting. Lists, headings, quotes, and image/content sections to make things visually appealing. I'm sorry, but I have to disagree. It's very difficult for me to follow textbooks that have 200 different colors and 5 sidebars per page.

You would probably like law textbooks. They are just prose, mostly with in-line citations rather than footnotes. No colored sections and only only a rare sidebar. They make reading, serious 100+ page each sitting reading, much easier. There is only one voice to follow and your eyes never need to bounce around the page.
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