Measured English

[Dunc]

Hey, look what I found in the back of the filing cabinet! The Flesch Test, no less! As lots of you will already know, it promises to tell you whether you write plain English or not. All you have to do is -

Take a sample of your prose - a post, a letter, an essay, your current novel-in-progress, whatever.

Count the number of sentences = A.
Count the number of words = B.
Count the number of syllables = C.

Calculate -
X = 206.835 - 1.015 x B / A - 84.6 x C / B

The answer is on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is Bad and 60 or better is said to be Plain English.

Measuring quality by quantifying - sounds like a scene from Dead Poets' Society, one of the great phony movies.

Regards / Dunc
This post rated at 80.1, leaving out the formula and these last two lines.

[amaranthus]

Originally posted by Dunc McReil

Calculate -
X = 206.835 - 1.015 x B / A - 84.6 x C / B

The answer is on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is Bad and 60 or better is said to be Plain English.



It's an odd theory. But one made up by an English prof, not a math prof. Let's take a very plain English sentence.

See Spot.

X= 120.205.

Excluding the quote, example and this last line, X=100.79.

Carol

[Dunc]

I have to admit that See Spot is Very Plain English. Regards / Dunc

[Rik Roots]

Originally posted by Dunc McReil
Count the number of sentences = A.
Count the number of words = B.
Count the number of syllables = C.

Calculate -
X = 206.835 - 1.015 x B / A - 84.6 x C / B


Is that

X = (206.835 - 1.015) x B /(( A - 84.6) x (C / B))

or

X = 206.835 - (((1.015 x B) / A) - 84.6 x C) / B

or ...

Sheesh, this is worse than working out the net present value of of Government assets at 6% inflation over 20 years to assess the best value option, in line with Her Majesty's Treasury's Green Book

[Dunc]

Garn, Rik. You know that the formula is -

X = 206.835 - (1.015 x B / A) - (84.6 x C / B)

and that the net present value of Government assets at 6% inflation over 20 years to assess the best value option, in line with Her Majesty's Treasury's Green Book is 42.

You're just being a tease. Regards / Dunc