Blog Readability - Bork Bork Bork!
November 15, 2007
Several other bloggers (Wendy Wickham, Karyn Romeis, Harold Jarche, Stephen Downes) have posted their blog reading level. When I tested mine today, I ended up at the college (postgrad) reading level. Interestingly, when I checked it earlier in the week, I was at high school level. Most of what was up at that point was link blogging though, and it’s plausible that the writing level for my link blogging is different from my full posts.
I think I agree with comments made by several others that easier reading levels might be better. I know I personally tend to skim a lot of blog posts, and if I can’t get the gist of the message quickly, I sometimes skip it. The first blog where I saw this readability test, Musical Perceptions, tested at the “genius level.” His reaction was “so much for aiming for a wide audience,” and I understand that. But when we’re wrestling with complex ideas, sometimes our explanations and our “thinking out loud” maybe needs to be complex. And while a wide audience might be nice, I do think it’s more realistic for me to write to the little niche audience of instructional designers, instructors, and ed tech folks I have.
The readability test doesn’t seem like something worth taking too seriously though, especially since my level changed just in the course of a few days. Maybe it’s because I’m ready for Friday already, but I’m in the mood for something a little silly. If you recognized the post title as a reference to the Swedish Chef, you’ll no doubt appreciate what my writing sounds like after being filtered by the encheferizer. For the best effect, read it out loud in your best mock Swedish voice.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about with the Swedish Chef…well, hopefully you knew I was weird before this. Just ignore the rest of this post and move to the next item in your aggregator.
Es I’m refflecteeng oon thees, I’m vundereeng vhet cherectereestics ooff thet leerneeng cummooneety I cuoold eeem tu repleecete-a in zee oonleene-a cuoorses I deseegn. Hunestly, I’m strooggleeng a leettle-a tu feegoore-a oooot hoo tu booeeld zeese-a espects intu zee deseegn ooff zee cuoorse-a thuoogh; mooch ooff thees feels leeke-a it’s oooot ooff my cuntrul frum my puseeshun “beheend zee scenes.” Thees is sumetheeng thet seems tu rely a lut oon zee cless cooltoore-a istebleeshed by iech instrooctur.
Bork Bork Bork!
Wonder what that will do to my readability level…
Technorati Tags: readability, swedish+chef, writing
