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Text File | 1985-11-27 | 14.3 KB | 353 lines

PC-Read - Version 2.1 PROLOGUE Jean stopped in the hall. He read the nameplate on the office door -- "W. Hannah, Vice President, Marketing". Jean nervously flicked a few imaginary specks from his coat. "Tap-Tap-Tap," he knocked. "Come in," a voice grumbled. W. Hannah, V. P., Marketing, flipped through the Wall Street Journal as Jean entered and set a slim report on the mahogany desk. "Here's the report you'd asked me to prepare on the Directions proposal." Hannah's eyes never left the Journal as he reached for the Directions proposal, hefted it, and pushed it back. "Too short, do it again. Put more words in it." The gruff response was a dismissal; Hannah turned to the mutual funds as Jean left the office, hurring to add words to a report that had never been read. INTRODUCTION While the above vignette is fictional, you may be familiar with similar situations in real life. Too often, the quality of a piece of writing is judged by how many words it contains. The more words, the better the writing. The longer the sentences, the better the writing. This attitude was standard in most business and government writing for many years (and still is in many cases). Lately, however, a reader revolt has been brewing. "If this writing is so good, then why do I have so much trouble reading it? Why does it give me headaches? Why do I keep putting off reading it? Why do I find myself reading the same paragraph over and over again? WHY CAN'T I MAKE ANY SENSE OUT OF IT?" Some people now feel that writing should be judged by how effective it is and not by how many words it contains. If you can't read it easily, then the writing is not effective. Since effectively relaying information is vital, many organizations are seriously looking for ways to improve the quality of their writing. PC-Read - Version 2.1 Some groups have tried creative writing or grammar classes. These classes are designed to improve a person's writing. Creative writing classes spur the imagination, while grammar classes stress the building-block approach to writing. There is a third technique designed to improve your writing. This approach judges the "readability" of writing. It grades writing from the reader's viewpoint by asking, "Is this document easy to read?" If you've ever struggled through the 1040 Federal Tax instruction booklet, you can appreciate that writing can be difficult to read. The Federal Tax instructions are confusing -- people don't like to read confusing writing. Why are the 1040 instructions so confusing? The writing is grammatically correct. The Tax instructions treat the subject in as creative a way as possible. Yet, these instructions fail the third test. They are a collection of long, complex sentences and words. The writing is dreary and "unreadable". Most readers simply cannot tolerate this. It "confuses" them. Complex subject matter does not have to mean complex writing. In fact, a good writer should strive for the opposite. If the subject is complex, then keep the writing as simple as possible. The reader will have enough trouble just digesting the subject matter. You don't want to swamp him by forcing him to decipher the writing. Researchers have been studying the characteristics of readable writing for about 50 years. They have devised several formulas to evaluate writing; most of these formulas deal with sentence length and word complexity. PC-READ The program PC-READ rates the complexity of writing as an average grade level (elementary, high school, college) at which the text could be easily read. For instance, a Reading Level of 9 suggests a 9th grade reading level. To make this more meaningful, a recent story in "The Wall Street Journal" indicated that some executives are most comfortable reading at a 7th grade level. This does not mean that business writing should be PC-Read - Version 2.1 "baby-writing" of the "See Bill. See Jane" variety. However, it does suggest that simple, concise writing is much more effective than complex writing. Most successful popular writing grades below a 13 on the READING LEVEL scale. As the level rises, people will find the text more and more difficult to read. Government and business writing often rates a very high Reading Level. This high level suggests that people will have trouble reading and understanding the writing. Complex subjects need not have high Reading Levels. For example, consider "The Wall Street Journal". A prime example of clear and concise coverage of complex subjects, the Journal averages a Reading Level of about 11. (Ironic how Mr. Hannah appreciates clear writing in his paper yet demands complex writing from his employees.) Note that a low Reading Level does not mean a piece of text is a sample of "good" writing, only that it is probably a piece of writing that is easy to read. However, most of what you consider "good" writing probably will not have high Reading Levels. USING PC-READ PC-READ accepts a text file and grades it on complexity. It uses a modification of a standard formula to rate text complexity. PC-READ does not use the formula devised by the Department of Defense. PC-READ accepts ASCII text files as well as WordStar files, WordPerfect files, and many other popular word processing program files. The text should contain mostly English sentences. Long tables, such as product descriptions and prices, extracts of computer programs, like COBOL data structures, or frequent sections of dialogue will skew the Reading Level. PC-READ comes on a DOS 1.1 formatted diskette. The program is not copy-protected. To copy PC-READ, place the program diskette in drive A; place the diskette you'd like to copy to in drive B. From DOS, issue the following command: COPY A:PC-READ.COM B: If you have a hard drive system, then place the PC-Read - Version 2.1 PC-READ program diskette in drive A and issue the following command: COPY A:PC-READ.COM C: (assuming that C: is the hard drive) PC-READ is now installed. To execute PC-READ, first make sure that PC-READ.COM is on the default drive. From the DOS prompt, enter: PC-READ You will receive a title screen introducing PC-READ. Press any key to continue. PC-READ begins by listing the directory of the default drive. It then enters a "ready" state and waits for you to press one of the function keys F1, F2, or F3. FUNCTION KEY ACTION F1 Change default drive: Press F1, and PC-READ will prompt you to enter a one-letter character denoting the new default (or logged) drive. For example, A, B, or C. After you enter the new drive ID, PC-READ will list the directory of that drive. F2 Enter text file name: Press F2 and PC-READ will prompt you to enter the name of a text file. If you don't enter a drive ID, PC-READ will search the current logged drive. If you enter a blank or null file name, PC-READ will return to the ready state. If the file is found, PC-READ will begin to rate the complexity of the writing. F3 Change the subdirectory path: Press F3 and PC-Read prompts you for the new subdirectory path. A null response leaves the subdirectory path as it is. PC-Read - Version 2.1 F4 Terminate PC-READ: Press F4 to exit the PC-READ program from the ready state. If you press F2 and enter an existing text file name, PC-READ begins processing that file. You'll see a running tally of words and sentences. PC-READ continues until: A) It reaches the end of the file, or B) It has processed 50 sentences. The 50 sentence limit allows you to process a sample from a long text file. This sample size is more than enough to determine a representative Reading Level. After processing your text, PC-READ displays a Reading Level table, a graphic showing your sample's Reading Level range, and your actual Reading Level. You have the option to process another file or to terminate the program. Press "N", and PC-READ returns to the ready state. Press "Q" and PC-READ terminates. REMEMBER The Reading Level is only a measure of what people consider easy reading. It doesn't measure whether the writing is good or bad, interesting or dull, enjoyable or irritating. It tries to measure whether or not the writing will tire the reader because of the way the words and sentences are assembled. USER-SUPPORTED SOFTWARE This is the sales pitch. The user-supported distribution concept relies on you to decide whether or not a piece of software has any value. If so, then you're asked to send a small fee to reward the software author. This is in contrast to the mainstream method of distribution. Normally, you pay lots of of money for a program that may or may not fit your needs. The catch is you won't know if the program works for you until AFTER you pay for it. There are no guarantees, no extensive try-outs, and no refunds. To top it off, your software purchase will possibly be copy-protected. PC-Read - Version 2.1 This makes your software investment awkward to use. Which method do you prefer? Either way, you must decide if the software is of value to you. With user-supported software, you have the chance to try the software in real life before you decide to pay for it. This benefits you. If you don't like the software, then fine. No harm done. If you do like the software, then please encourage the user-supported concept and the software author by sending the suggested fee. Either way, feel free to copy and distribute the software to your friends, provided that you include this documentation file. However, you may not charge a fee for this distribution or in any other way use this software for commercial purposes without permission. In other words, it's okay to use this program in your business, just don't sell it to anyone or offer it as a "sweetener" for a sale. It's okay to copy and give this software away if there are no commercial strings attached, though. stem. Indirect benefits include ensuring a continued supply of quality user-supported software by encouraging software authors with the success of the user-supported concept. Baton Rouge, La. 70821 Direct benefits of sending in a payment include an automatic upgrade to the next version AND free membership to a 24 hour-a-day supporting computerized bulletin board synd (Ascii < 28)) or (Ascii < 9) then Ascii := 0; Ch := Char(Ascii); Line[Leadpoint] := Ch; End; End; Procedure Parse; {Suck out a word} Begin;