Since it's revived, I wonder what would be the score of the new simplified WT magazine???
Dumbing down of WT literature can be measured mathematically.
by hamsterbait 39 Replies latest jw friends
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3Mozzies
I wonder what would be the score of the new simplified WT magazine???
Well it sure is closer to Zero than ever before . . .
3Mozzies
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james_woods
Since it's revived, I wonder what would be the score of the new simplified WT magazine???
That is what I was wondering, specifically - what would be the score comparison of the "adult" and "junior" version tested on the same issues?
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Mad Sweeney
I did the July 15 Simplified versus "Highbrow" versions. Here was my method.
- Downloaded both pdf files.
- Opened them.
- Copied paragraphs 9-13 from pages 6-8 in Simplified - 12,13 in Regular - same article.
- Pasted those paragraphs into MS Word.
- Ran spell-check and corrected typos that showed up in the copying process.
- Posted the results here.
For the simplified version:
Flesch Reading Ease - 80.0
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level - 3.0
For the regular version:
Flesch Reading Ease - 59.6
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level - 5.9
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nugget
Thi is why i found them so hard to read, they weren't written for me I was too educated.
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Band on the Run
I am curious about the methodology. Did people scan the text into Word? A skill I do not know. Word has at least two different readability scales.
I'm torn apart. My parents were working poor. They were bright but very limited b/c of their Witness affiliation. I learned a lot about writing from the Watchtower and Awake. English and American lit classics would have been better but my classmates had no reading material at home. Aside from readability, the style is stilted which leads to great parody. My brother and I can still have hard laughs about how certain concepts were portrayed.
What strikes me about Witness literature is its magic. Authors are not acknolwedged. Jehovah does it all himself. Voila. They have an obsession against the Roman Catholic Church yet the church never claims the complete authority they do. My father was a bodyguard to Knorr and Rutherford. The istories I heard did not evoke paradise or even any concept of God.
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james_woods
My father was a bodyguard to Knorr and Rutherford. The istories I heard did not evoke paradise or even any concept of God.
Interesting - I did not know Knorr had bodyguards like Rutherford did.
The method of scanning in an article from print requires a scanner, of course. Some copy businesses can do it for you and give you an electronic copy.
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Soldier77
Haha! I always knew their literature was dumbed down, but now that there is an actual figure attached to it, this is priceless.
Oh and just copy and paste from pdf into word, you don't need a scanner...
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james_woods
Oh and just copy and paste from pdf into word, you don't need a scanner...
I assumed he meant from the printed page...
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breakfast of champions
I think this is what BOTR is looking for.
