acton@mprvaxa.UUCP (03/03/87)
In article <214@fornax.uucp> chapman@fornax.uucp (John Chapman) writes: >Just a p.s. to my posting. Did you know that the average canadian >newspaper editorial is pitched at a grade eight reading level (according >to one of my old english teachers)? Isn't that disturbing? I am not sure why this is disturbing John so I will other some guesses. (put words in his mouth :-) 1) Editorials are written at the grade eight level because that is the education level of the editors. If that is the case, and judging by some of the grammatical and spelling errors spotted in newspapers not an unreasonable conclusion, then I will have to agree with John. (please no flames on the abuses I inflict upon the English language.) 2) The average reader only has reading skills that are at the grade eight level. If this is the reason then I am not at all disturbed. Although it is a shame that the average reader might only have that level of education I wouldn't want to deprive people, like my parents who grew up during the depression and didn't have the chance to complete school, the opportunity to read newspapers and be exposed to other peoples ideas. Since people of that era and earlier make up a considerable portion of society I think it is only fair that the papers of the day take this into consideration when they write their editorials. A second point to consider is whether or not the papers can communicate the ideas they want to with that level of writing. If they can then is there any real need to change? One other point is that newspapers aren't just for "adults". Donald Acton