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Cleartext — A text editor that allows only the 1,000 most common words
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Reminds me of the presidential debates. The simpler the language used, the more effective the candidate was in the debate.
For those wondering, Trump has been communicating at a 4th grade level, the lowest of all the candidates. 😀
More info: https://www.bostonglobe.com/news...
@mscccc Studies show if the message is unclear, the receiver thinks the sender is an idiot. Writers that can use clear language usually are better received. The problem is this is usually not improved by just substituting larger words for smaller, more common words. It is usually better to be yourself, but be as clear as possible. More on readability here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
@mortenjust From the Wikipedia article I shared above:
While experts agree that the formulas are highly accurate for grading the readability of existing texts, they are not so useful for creating or modifying them. The two variables used in most formulas, a sentence and a vocabulary, are the ones most directly related to reading difficulty, but they are not the only ones.
Writing experts have warned that if you "write to the formula," that is, attempt to simplify the text only by changing the length of the words and sentences, you may end up with text that is more difficult to read. All the variables are tightly related. If you change one, you must also adjust the others, including approach, voice, person, tone, typography, design, and organization.
Writing for a class of readers other than one's own is very difficult. It takes training, method, and practice. Among those who are good at this are writers of novels and children's books. The writing experts all advise that, besides using a formula, observe all the norms of good writing, which are essential for writing readable texts. Study the texts used by your audience and their reading habits. This means, if you are writing for a 5th-grade audience, study and learn good quality 5th-grade materials.
This is awesome. Now if we can just get every academic researcher out there to write papers with this ;)
@colemercer That's what we do: http://summarizer.hdphealth.com
Btw, most of the time, the academic researcher is trained to write papers for fellow researchers. Ask them to put it in layman's text and they will some of the time.
@govindrai @colemercer true, but some concepts simply can't be explained from a selection of 1000 words.
@matteisn @govindrai @colemercer if you have n words and cant explain the n+1 th word, than there never would be more than n words. so its possible but you might need to explain concepts that arent really part of the research the paper is about.
Top Hunter
The end of civilized expression, clearly.
Oh wups, sorry if that comment is over anyone's head here.
Here's what I meant to say: 😝
I'm not sure I understand the impetus for this product. What inspired you to build it?
@brendanbeirne I think it's because some brand copy is unnecessarily hard to understand. You know what would be awesome? It you could do Spanish too 😇
Great idea to keep an idea simple. I can see a huge use for this product with ESL teachers and their students learning English to me that's the really big market for this. You can build confidence with the students with the tool
It's a very interesting concept and I like you made it open source, on the other side simpler language lead to simpler thought most of the time.
I'm a huge fan of Randall Monroe, so your product is very interesting for me. Special thanks for open source your program.
Hey guys, thanks for upvoting and commenting! I'm right here to hear your thoughts
This reminds me of Ernest Hemingway’s response when William Faulkner criticized him for writing with simple words.
“Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don’t know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use.”
As a writer, while we are intent on making our writing simple to understand but for a longish piece, it's important that we don't overuse a word many times—as the writing gets monotonous. How do you plan to tackle this?
@harshsnehanshu That's a great point. What I've found is that you can vary sentences and not just words. Also, I wouldn't ban any word not in the top 1,000
Such an interesting concept. I can totally see myself using this to write content that will appeal to a broad audience
Wow. I'm going to share this with everyone in PR and marketing that fights with people who continually insert $5 words into their copy.
Love the example! Really shows how it can simplify your writing! Definitely going to use this! Keep it up!
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