Re: the Ruler - Rule question

"a". as many people have pointed out, setting a grade level (or whatever) for
all content is not practical. I would prefer us to describe some tests that
can be used to determine "as far as you can" - for example thesaurus and
grammar-based substitution can be done, and if the results mean the same to
the author, then they can go that far.

cheers

Charles

On Sun, 29 Jul 2001, Gregg Vanderheiden wrote:

  If we did have a ruler for complexity of language (one that everyone
  agreed with)

  Would we

  a) Put in a rule that says "go as far down that ruler as you can"?

  or

  b) Draw a line on the ruler and say "you must get below that line but
  don’t need to go lower -- though it would be good if you did"?

  option (c) --   "you must have content that works for all on the rule"
  doesn’t work since the rules must go down to 0 to include all.

  a) takes us back to the problem of 'no clear criterion'
  b) is what is usually done -  but is very hard to do without a consensus
  rulemaking body.

  What are people thinking?

  A?  or B?  or C?  or ??

  Gregg
  -- ------------------------------
  Gregg C Vanderheiden Ph.D.
  Professor - Human Factors
  Dept of Ind. Engr. - U of Wis.
  Director - Trace R & D Center
  Gv@trace.wisc.edu <mailto:Gv@trace.wisc.edu>, <http://trace.wisc.edu/>
  FAX 608/262-8848 
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Received on Sunday, 29 July 2001 21:59:44 UTC