"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Arthur C. Clarke
"Any sufficiently obfuscated meaning is indistinguishable from baloney."
Jim Flowers
I've posted on this topic before; but it's important enough for a return engagement.
Your hot new invention may well be over-the-top incredible. Unfortunately, if the language you employ to describe it is not clear, powerful, and direct, all your creativity and effort may be wasted. Your Magic will not work because your Message is weak.
OK, you say, I get it; but what's the point of the title for this post. And why did you leave a typo in the headline?
Hah! Gotcha. The Flesch to which I refer is exactly that, Flesch, not flesh. Rudolph Flesch is the godfather of readability analysis. I was recently reminded of Flesch by Joe Roy, aka "Mr. Clarity," in a post about "readable writing."
It happens that I can test my writing for readability right inside Word. So can you. Here's how.
Check (turn on) “Check grammar with spelling.”
Check (turn on) “Show readability statistics.”
Left-click “OK.”
Spell-check your document. (Press the Flesch.)
After the spell-check, you will see a report of “Readability Statistics.” The Flesch Reading Ease score is the second-last number in the list.
Mr. Clarity also provided a handy scoring comparison scale for reference. The numbers are Flesch ratings, just like the one at the end of your spell check.
50s Time magazine
40s The Wall Street Journal
30s Harvard Law Review; white papers
20s IRS forms; academic papers
10s Many high-tech web sites
So, Mr. Entrepreneur, if your linguistic skills are insufficiently advanced so as to avoid obfuscation, your contemporaneous paucity of revenue-producing events may well be exacerbated. In actuality, you may even commit inadvertent prevarication as a consequence of perplexity on the part of your intended patron.
All silliness aside, I owe special thanks to Joe for the George Carlin example of clear writing, even if it is PG-13. ("63.6 on the Flesch Reading Ease test of readability – higher than every Fortune 500 company annual report issued last year.")
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