Blog Reading Levels
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James Joyner | Thursday, November 8, 2007 |
Bruce McQuain ran Q&O through an Internet widget and found that the site was written at the College Undergraduate level.
Curious, I did the same for OTB. To my chagrin, we apparently write like high schoolers around here.
Considering that all the site authors have graduate degrees, that was a bit disconcerting. Out of curiosity, though, I decided to run our celebrity gossip site, Gone Hollywood, through the tester:
I’m honestly not sure what to make of that.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia.
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It takes a genius to write about celebrity T&A.
Duh. :D
Apparently the tester is a fan of celebrity gossip.
No offense, but have you ever looked at Steve's posts? While the points he makes are usually pretty salient, the writing is frequently littered with grammatical errors, which I'm assuming such a widget would be tracking heavily. Considering that his posts tend to be much longer than the other writers at OTB, there are even more errors to be had. There's a noticeable difference as a frequent reader, and I imagine the widget might notice as well.
Hmm.... I checked a few other sites. Volokh Conspiracy, which is a bunch of lawyers talking about complex legal issues, seems to be at a Jr. High School Reading Level.
Don't forget, too, that this program probably just isn't looking at the posts, but feeding in the sidebar content, too, which might be making a big difference.
I'm not pleased that Crossroads Arabia is said to be 'Genius' level. Tenth grade is the level to which most writing for a general public is expected to be aimed.
Hmmm. The Glittering Eye tested out at College (Postgrad) level. I'm trying for High School so I guess I need to work on my sentence length.
I'm still trying to figure it out. Instapundit.com and Ann Althouse's blog both come out as Junior High, TPM and Daily Kos as High School. Crooked Timber comes out as Genius as does Econbrowser.
To my chagrin, we apparently write like high schoolers around here.
Impossible! I will bet that you couldn't find 10 high school students in the entire nation that understand the word "chagrin".
It couldn't check my blog. Apparently being a folder down from mythusmageopines.com gives the poor beast trouble. With what the other commenters say, it looks like we're dealing with a poop urn.
My blog came up High School
The two Sports blogs I am a contributing author to(OTB Sports and Poliblog Deportes) ranked Junior High School
Bullwinkle Blog where I contribute a little tested at elementary school level
My blog came back "College (Postgrad)". There seems to be little rhyme or reason to the ratings.
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