Day 59 - "Keep It Simple, Stupid" That might have been coined 60 years ago by the US Navy for system design, but it was commonly used in my profession too. I taught Technical English to adult, second-language learners. Okay, I often substituted the final word as "Students" when in the classroom! Or I just ran around between the tables making kissing sounds on my right arm.The goal of most business and technical language situations is focused on getting something done. Avoiding ambiguity is key. So, my students had to quit trying to impress me with obscure vocabulary and use a variety of sentence structures that usually tended to be less complex and more to the point. As it turns out, it is pretty damned hard explaining something well using short, concise language structures. It's difficult to put complex thoughts into straightforward text.
I was thinking of these things as I noticed my blog post of two days ago seemed simplistic. I saw how I had repeated some words over and over, especially the term, Sri Lankan dogs.
I wondered if many teachers are using software text analysis nowadays. I recall, we ran reading exercises through a Windows application called RightWriter in the Foundations Program at the UAE Higher Colleges of Technology in the early 1990s.
Now, of course, a similar analysis is available for free online. I put my blog post through Text Inspector and did come up with a Flesch Kincaid grade level score of below sixth grade. I was pleased. I was quite pleased! Remember, this is one scale where it's usually much better to score low.