I have a … coworker … that relies on those readability scores. I really wish the bosses would stop sending me their stuff to rewrite.
I think the problem with scoring is that communication quality is not as quantifiable as we like to think it is. Part of the issue is that language used to communicate often changes at a rate much faster than the rules used to quantify said communication. My “poor grammar” (and it is poor in both the figurative and literal sense) score badly. Yet my communications score much higher with my “audience” as effective. Part of that is due to my real world style. Another contributor is my conscious revisions made in the mind of “will my dog understand this?” and if he can’t, rewrite it so he can. But then my writing is for a purpose; to effectively communicate complex technical concepts as clearly as possible. Maybe that’s why the score’s don’t work for me.
And for the record, he is a duuuuuuuummmmmmmmb dog. Almost as dumb as me. But I have thumbs so I look smarter.
Austen certainly did not analyse her use of punctuation. Scattered — and ! around within sentences like she was sowing seeds and waiting to see them grow. And starting on average 100 sentences per novel with a conjunction. She was more concerned with getting the story down than with people being lazy and not putting the effort into reading so she must make her texts readable to the lowest common denominator.
What’s wrong with this? Most style guides say it’s okay, and they’re mostly interested in non-fiction. In a novel, I’d think one could get away with anything, even if it is against the rules, which this isn’t.
One major technical hurdle to these readability calculations is that they rely on counting syllables, and Cocoa has no way of doing that for Mac; nor does Qt for Windows, I believe. There are some Cocoa classes out there (by other people) that do this, but they do it by splitting up words by vowels and then checking for lists of words and parts of words that don’t follow this crude rule. So, they are very rudimentary, won’t work well for half of the language, and even then only work with English. A syllable counter would need to be added at the franework (Apple) level for this really to be feasible.
Jane and I have a lot in common when it comes to punctuation methodology and comma abuse. She would fling handfuls of the stuff at the pages of damp ink, whereas I use one of these, a Tyrolean pebble dash gun: youtube.com/watch?v=mraJM5lrqEM
instead of cement and or pebbles, I load it up with ,s .s ;s :s ?s "s 's !s `s ~s *s (s )s /s \s |s etc., etc. Works for me
Wot friggin’ literary firestorm are you walking into now? Why are y’ dragging’ me in to it?
The numpty of numpties Michael Gove MP, the UK’s Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, recently issued a diktat that no civil servant in his department was to start a sentence with a conjunction. This numpty of numpties was previously Secretary of State for Education yet he exhibits no knowledge of education in general or of good writing in particular.
And reep is the head master. But he isn’t sure he wants to be. Not that it really matters.
And I think all us numpties should be offended. I mean it isn’t really fair is it? lumping us in with politicians. Next you’ll associate us with lawyers.
What was even stranger (and more ridiculous) was that prior to his political peregrinations he was a hack. And hacks are well-known for starting sentences with conjunctions.
And the game is to do it in a legitimate way. Unlike using literally and like improperly to show oneself an idiot the use of a leading “and” should be considered appropriate by real writers. NOT correct, but appropriate.
[size=150]Because, you speak to me in accent sweet Foreigners are welcomed here. Androids are humanesque? Butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. Order and chaos are but two sides of the same coin. Yetis love chocs and icecreams. [/size]
And if you noticed, I did the same in my response to your response to my response. Or would that be in my response to your response regarding my response?
Why are y’ dragging’ me in to it? 
