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How simple is simple enough: Editor's Notes #230 February 28, 2017 |
| Hello, --Mark Twain In this issue: 1. How simple is simple enough? 2. Tickled my funnybone 3. Interesting Web site 4. Writing prompt 1. How simple is simple enough? When I edit, I include a readability score. I don't think I'm the only editor who does this, but apart from editors who specialize in literature for children, I am one of only a few. A readability score gives an idea of how easy your text is to read. Attending to readabiilty shows you are thoughtful about your reader as well as your message. I always recommend that you think of your reader at his or her worst. For example, if you are submitting your text to a publishing house, think of the person asked to read your text and make a case to the boss on whether or not to offer you a contract. The reader is at the end of a long day. On the left side of the desk is a ten-inch pile of manuscripts needing to be read. The reader has had a headache coming on all day and is losing the battle against worry about the sick child at home. Just before the reader's hand reaches for your manuscript, an urgent memo drops on the desk asking for input into another office issue. The reader quickly whips off an answer, sighs, and picks up your manuscript. That is the person you must convince. That is the person who should finish your text with a sense of joy because finally there is a book that sounds excellent. That person, who probably went to at least some university, has a reading level of something like 12.0-16.9. But that person is not working at peak ability, so I always suggest that writers aim much lower when it comes to readability. And if you have a difficult topic, you have to add what is called cognitive overhead into the calculation. Cognitive overhead is how much mental effort it takes to make connections when making sense of something. So if your topic is complex or is difficult in any other way, you have a bigger responsibility to lower the reading score so you don't overload your reader. This is not dumbing something down. It is writing clearly and thoughtfully. I urge you to write simply enough to delight the most overburdened reader you can imagine. =========== 2.Tickled my funnybone Sign in a department store: Bargain Basement Upstairs =========== 3. Interesting Web site The linked article here is about apps, but the idea of cognitive overhead applies to writing as well. http://firstround.com/review/cognitive-overhead-is-your-products-overlord-topple-it-with-these-tips/ =========== 4. Writing prompt Just one word today: heavy. Make quick notes about heavy for one minute. Then write until you feel you are done. =========== Join Writer's Helper Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/WritersHelperEditor Follow me on Twitter @AudreytheEditor Link on LinkedIn https://ca.linkedin.com/in/audreyowen (Email me first so I know how you know me.) =========== If you know a writer who would appreciate receiving Editor's Notes, forward this issue. If someone has passed this on to you, you can get your own free subscription by signing up at https://www.writershelper.com/newsletter.html |
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