Comments on 4.1 (prior to telecon)

Under level 1:
Current wording (in Avi's message):
"* Terms that should be familiar to the intended audience are favored
over terms that are less likely to be understood."
Comment:
[js] "favored" might be a difficult word for some to understand, especially
in this passive construction.

Suggestion: "... Are used instead of..." or " are used more often than ..."
A similar construction appears under the level 2 success criterion, and I'd
make the same proposal there.


Current wording in Avi's message reads:
"* Sentences are limited to a single idea.
* Paragraphs are limited to a single idea."

Comment"
[js] Saying that both sentences and paragraphs should be limited to a single
idea appears to imply that every sentence should be a paragraph (and that
all paragraphs are therefore one sentence long).  That could actually make
text harder to understand.  I don't have a good proposal to offer at this
point.

Under level 2, making the success criteria declarative (as per consensus and
Gregg's note) will also make many of these items easier to read and
understand.

Current wording in Avi's message reads:
"* Would long paragraphs be easier to understand if rewritten as vertical
lists?"

Comment:
[js] I think this one is hard to test as written.  Perhaps it should
indicate that long paragraphs containing lists or series in sentence form
may be easier to understand when formatted as lists.  (Sorry, this is the
best I can do right now!).

John


John Slatin, Ph.D.
Director, Institute for Technology & Learning
University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station G9600
FAC 248C
Austin, TX 78712
ph 512-495-4288, f 512-495-4524
email jslatin@mail.utexas.edu
web http://www.ital.utexas.edu
 

Received on Thursday, 9 January 2003 15:51:31 UTC