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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

#131

Post by DanBC »

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/2010/15/contents

Here's a Google search for some easy read documents: https://www.google.co.uk/search?site=&source=hp&q=easy+read+...

Here's Mencap's (a charity that works with people with learning disability) guide to Easy Read: https://www.mencap.org.uk/make_it_clear

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

#132

Post by bcbrown »

erelde wrote: post #88
webkike wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ability to describe anything says nothing about the clarity of the description

While playing the devil's advocate, I could argue that the description using only 0 and 1 is more precise than the phrase "It's a picture of a white cliff on the shore of the sea, possibly in the south of England, in the foreground there's the silhouette of a man or woman to small to distinguish clearly at the bottom of the cliff, the sky above the cliff is bright blue with a few trailing clouds etc etc etc etc etc".…

I disagree. That's a reproduction, not a description.

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

#133

Post by Silhouette »

Tharkun wrote: post #55
kf5jak wrote: post #12

A similar editor was made for the book Thing Explainer[1] by Randal Munroe from XKCD. A book that explains all kinds of different things, from space shuttles to microwaves using the top 1000 common English words. [1] https://xkcd.com/thing-explainer/

Yeah it's called "thing explainer", but it's more like a "thing convoluter". It's a work humour, not a book of science.

It's a work humour, not a book of science.

Indeed. I thought it was an interesting experiment. The results make it abundantly clear that 1,000 words are not enough to communicate about science and engineering topics effectively even at an introductory "plain English" level.

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

#135

Post by j_koreth »

phaedryx wrote: post #103
gertef wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump does not limit himself to anything like the most common 1000 worrds

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2015/10/20/donald-t... He does use very simple words.

This also ignores also that most Democratic presidents spoke on the same level

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

#136

Post by colejohnson66 »

DigitalJack wrote: post #34
dormento wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a small nit: The words sound alike but they mean different things. You should have read everything, then you would have seen the reference. Source: grammer.

This is just a phonetic misspelling of the contraction "should've" which really is pronounced "should of"

Ain't the English language great when we can have multiple contractions such as "couldn't've"

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

#137

Post by tacos »

duaneb wrote: post #20
blhack wrote: post #11

You guys are missing that this is a joke. This is a reference to this comic: https://xkcd.com/1133/ . Which is poking fun at how funny things sound when you restrict yourself to only that many words.

A joke that would improve the writing of most people.

Sorry, "improve" is not in the list.

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

#138

Post by oaktowner »

awjr wrote: post #120
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 personally use http://www.hemingwayapp.com/ when I think I've gone a bit lazy in the way I have written an article.

I had forgotten about that. Thanks for the reminder!

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

#139

Post by huac »

awjr wrote: post #120
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 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."
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