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Post by dormouse on May 6, 2019 20:49:18 GMT
I was wondering whether anyone uses readability statistics as part of their writing process.
The question was prompted by having a look at SmartEdit Writer - the latest iteration of Atomic Scribbler but now incorporating the SmartEdit functionality free. I was surprised to find that SmartEdit appeared not to have any readability calculations. It's not a feature of most writing programs (though Word has it [in theory - I've never got it to work in practice], Google Docs used to have it {does have add-ins with it] and DoogiePIM has it with very fast calculation), but I expected it to be a core feature of editing software.
Grammarly has one stat (ReadingEase iirc). None of it is a problem to me because I mostly use ProWritingAid which has a number of them, and I have a pretty good awareness of where my scores are likely to be. But that awareness is because I've done a lot of checks in the past. Personally, I prefer the DoogiePIM approach because I like to keep an eye on where it is going rather than seeing it as part of an editing process.
Maybe I'm just odd else surely it would be as common a feature as word count.
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Post by K'Sennia Visitor on May 6, 2019 22:27:33 GMT
I've heard of readability tests. It's commonly used by copywriters to make sure their ads can be understood by their audience. It's not a bad idea for fiction writers to use them. Especially if you write for kids. It's not something that usually occurs to me to use. I also don't think I use a lot of big words anyway. My vocab isn't that advanced. Occasionally, I'll throw out an old archaic word if I'm feeling fancy, but for the most part I write low enough on the scale that I doubt tests are necessary for me.
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Post by dormouse on May 7, 2019 12:44:48 GMT
I started checking them when I needed to check that what I had written was appropriate for the intended audience, but quickly started to use them as a useful descriptive metric. I compare one work with another and different parts of a manuscript with each other. I use quite a wide variety of styles and this is an easy way to check on whether I have unintended drift. This means that easy access is important as it's not worth a lot of effort to do the check.
I've had another thought. My current work has a number of POVs. I'd expect variation in their language and sophistication. So worth comparing the readability of each POV? And, if I decide it is (I probably will, just out of interest), what program would make it easiest to extract the POVs separately for analysis?
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Post by K'Sennia Visitor on May 7, 2019 15:48:29 GMT
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Post by dormouse on May 7, 2019 16:20:29 GMT
Some chapters scenes I have a fair bit of head hopping. I could split into mini-scenes. Easy enough in yWriter which keeps tabs on POV. But atm I'm mostly writing in WriteMonkey (v3); I find that it has the best colour setup for my eyes. I've only had a single document because it is easy to manage with jumps and text folding, but not so convenient for extracting part chapters. I'll try setting up a project with sub-projects and see how well that works. For me, the biggest advantage of yWriter is that it can be used on all platforms (WriteMonkey doesn't do Android or iOS) but I'm usually writing on my PC recently.
If necessary, I might just put the different sections in doogiePIM because the stats are then done automatically.
For some, reason I have never got it to work in Word, although I've followed all the instructions. I've never persevered because I'd rather not have to use Word anyway and I find it takes an age to do spelling and grammar checks anyway.
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