Debate analysis (sentence structure, grade-level, etc.)

[Muttocracy]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/03/debate.words/

...

The analysis noted that the "passive voice can be used to deflect responsibility; Biden used active voice when referring to Cheney and Bush; Palin countered with passive deflections."

"It obscures the doer of the action," said Language Monitor President Paul Payack, an independent with no political affiliation.

...

Grade level: Biden, 7.8; Palin, 9.5 (Newspapers are typically written to a sixth-grade reading level.)

Sentences per paragraph: statistically tied at 2.7 for Biden and 2.6 for Palin.

Letters per word: tied at 4.4.

Ease of reading: Biden, 66.7 (with 100 being the easiest to read or hear), versus 62.4 for Palin.

The analysis said Abraham Lincoln spoke at an 11th-grade level during his seven debates in 1858 against incumbent Stephen A. Douglas in their race for a Senate seat from Illinois.

But higher grade level doesn't necessarily mean better sentence, Payack said. He pointed to Palin's second-to-last sentence in the debate, which the formula put at a grade level of 18.3:

"What I would do, also, if that were ever to happen, though, is to continue the good work he is so committed to of putting government back on the side of the people and get rid of the greed and corruption on Wall Street and in Washington," Palin said.

"When she said it, it sounded good, but on paper it's a completely different animal," Payack said. "It's like, what is that?"

...

[housewolf]

1. huh?????

I told someone today that Sara Palin is the queen of run-on sentences. I almost never heard a period in her sentences, they just ran on and on and on stringing unrelated comments all together.

This analsysis seens very strange to me...

[Muttocracy]

3. those automated grade analyzers give a higher score to convoluted sentences

because it takes more brain power to decipher them. That's in part why good media isn't writing at a grad school level - it needs to be clear and rapidly readable. So yeah, her sentences are a piece of work. The computer scoring can't analyze actual credibility or meaning, just relationships of phrases, sentence structure, etc.

[MarjorieG]

2. Sarah at a higher grade level? Guess comprehension wasn't a factor.

[Muttocracy]

4. see my reply above - higher score isn't a good thing - it means more work to decipher. nt

[Youphemism]

5. "Grade level" is a misnomer because it awards points for babbling. "Fog Index" is the correct term.

"What I would do, also, if that were ever to happen, though, is to continue the good work he is so committed to of putting government back on the side of the people and get rid of the greed and corruption on Wall Street and in Washington. "

FOG Index Calculator <http://www.panix.com/~dhf/fog.html>
Fog: 23.0553

Number of words: 47
Number of sentences: 1
Average words per sentence: 47.0000
Percentage of complex words: 10.64

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunning-Fog_Index>

In linguistics, the Gunning fog index is a test designed to measure the readability of a sample of English writing. The resulting number is an indication of the number of years of formal education that a person requires in order to easily understand the text on the first reading. That is, if a passage has a fog index of 12, it has the reading level of a U.S. high school senior. The test was developed by Robert Gunning, an American businessman, in 1952.<1>

The fog index is generally used by people who want their writing to be read easily by a large segment of the population. Texts that are designed for a wide audience generally require a fog index of less than 12.

[Muttocracy]

7. Love it! you should send that to CNN. nt

[silverojo]

6. What a bunch of horseshit. n/t