Readability: ROTR v. Rush v. Franken
- Posted by Justin Higgins on January 13th, 2008 in
What is readability? It's simply how smart someone has to be to understand a majority of the content posted on a blog or website. Using an automated system, I compared my site, Rush Limbaugh's site, and Al Franken's site. According to the system, my site requires a high school reading level, about where I expected. Rush, in his glory, has a site with the vocabulary of a genius. Meanwhile, Franken's Senate site is best-suited for junior high students. Go figure. Think of it what you may...
What do I think? I think this is simply because Conservatives have a great vocabulary, and the only words that will register as "upper level" on liberal websites are universal, in reference to healthcare, impeachment, in reference to our President, and probably lots of words for "rationalize" since they have to try to rationalize their own mentality.
Blog Readability
My personal blog comes in as "Elementary School" reading level. I guess that's because, as a technical writer by trade, I'm in the habit of writing in such a way as to be understood by the lowest common denominator: That is, anyone who must read the documentation in order how to figure out how to work something.
Either way, I ran CNN.com and FOXNEWS.com through the mill, and they both came out as "JUNIOR HIGH" also.