dumbing down

Michael Yates mikey+ at pitt.edu
Mon Oct 16 08:06:38 PDT 2000


But doesn't Hemingway's prose test out at a pretty low grade level too?

Michael Yates

Doug Henwood wrote:


> [Since over 80% of U.S. adults are h.s. grads, and almost half have
> at least some college, why is the discourse pitched so low?]
>
> New York Times - October 16, 2000
>
> Why the Mind Shrivels for the Body Politic
> By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
>
> Does the dialogue of the presidential debates seem more juvenile than eloquent?
>
> American political discourse has grown more simplistic for decades,
> at least according to the Flesch-Kincaid reading-level formula, a
> gauge widely used by publishers and educators for evaluating the
> difficulty of a text, according to the length of its words and the
> complexity of its sentences.
>
> It turns out that Vice President Al Gore's statements in the first
> debate in Boston a couple of weeks ago read at a level roughly
> appropriate to an eighth-grader. Gov. George W. Bush spoke at a level
> almost a grade below. Each candidate's speech fell half a grade level
> in the second debate last week.
>
> Robert Beard, linguistics professor emeritus at Bucknell and chief
> linguistics officer of the language information Internet company
> yourDictionary.com, evaluated the transcripts of the debates using
> Flesch- Kincaid software now installed in many word-processing
> programs.
>
> He said that in the Lincoln-Douglas debates, Stephen A. Douglas's
> speeches tested at nearly a 12th- grade reading level, and Abraham
> Lincoln's just above 11th grade. In the first televised presidential
> debate, in 1960, John F. Kennedy spoke at nearly a 10th-grade level
> and Richard M. Nixon just above 10th grade. But during the 1996
> presidential election debates, Bill Clinton spoke at a level suitable
> for eighth- graders, and Bob Dole at a level right for the sixth
> grade.
>
> The hands-down winner for complex talk in the current campaign is
> Ralph Nader, of the Green Party, who hit the 12th-grade reading level
> in a recent television appearance.
>
> Speaking at a low reading level is in some ways a measure of success
> for a politician in an age of the mass media, since less-challenging
> usage is accessible to more of the electorate. "The lower reading
> level shows they are more interested in people who are going to vote
> than in history and posterity," Professor Beard said. "You wouldn't
> simplify your speech to impress intellectuals or to appear
> statesmanlike."
>
> Franklin D. Roosevelt, for example, sought the declaration of war
> against Japan in 1941 at a comparatively erudite 12th-grade level, he
> noted.
>
> The principal candidates this year conduct their debates at a level
> only slightly below that of the pundits who dissect their words,
> Professor Beard said. The transcript of a recent "Meet the Press"
> program read at a level that might be somewhat challenging for an
> eighth-grader, and the contentious "McLaughlin Group" at a level
> appropriate to the ninth grade. This article reads at about the
> 12th-grade level.
>
> In some contexts, complex speech may be an asset. Richard Hatch,
> winner of the reality game show "Survivor," issued his final
> statement at a reading level below the sixth grade, but the other
> contestants generally spoke below fourth-grade levels. Mr. Hatch's
> speech was complicated in part because he often used the passive
> voice - in about 16 percent of his sentences, Professor Beard said.
> He noted that the passive voice was an indication of deviousness,
> often used to avoid taking responsibility for one's actions.
>



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