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1991-12-15
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WC
Text Analysis Software
Version 1.3
"More than just a word count."
(C)opyright 1991 The Software System
The Software System
3477 Westport Ct.
Cincinnati, OH 45248
(513) 574-7523
WC provides powerful easy-to-use text analysis for all word processor
users. The text analysis features found in WC are a dynamic tool for
all writers, students, and business environments. WC can enhance your
writing by providing you the information that you need to be sure your
writing is on target and reaching the audience you want to reach.
When words count, WC furnishes the tools required to convey your
message in a clear, concise way.
Using WC
WC can analyze any ASCII text file that can be processed in
conventional memory. Most word processors provide an option to output
text in ASCII format. Refer to your word processor documentation to
learn how to output ASCII text. The text analysis is performed by
simply typing the following at the DOS prompt:
WC <Filename> {/option}
Where the filename is the ASCII text file to be analyzed.
EX.
C>WC textfile.doc
This will analyze the file textfile.doc.
To redirect the output to a file, use standard DOS redirection.
EX.
C>WC textfile.doc >output.txt
This will analyze the file textfile.doc and place the analyzer's
output in the file output.txt.
The output can also easily be printed by redirecting to your line
printer.
EX.
C>WC textfile.doc >LPT1:
After a few moments of analyzing the file, WC should complete the
analysis.
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The Output
WC's output consists of various statistics that can be important in
analyzing your writing. The character distribution appears at the top
of the output. This is simply the number of times each character
occurred in the file. The number of words in the file appears next,
followed by the average word length in characters. The unique words
statistic appears next. This is the number of words that appear in
the file at least once. To reduce redundancy in writing, the thirty
words that occur the most in the file are shown next.
Several valuable statistics are then given about the text. Among
these are the number of sentences in the file, words per sentence, the
number of syllables in the file, syllables per word and syllables per
sentence. WC utilizes the best possible technology to supply this
data accurately, and great care was taken to insure correctness.
However, since many factors go into the counting of sentences and
syllables, the user must be aware that these are only approximations.
Finally, a readability index is given along with the grade level and
level of difficulty. This can be extremely useful when targeting your
writing to a specific audience.
The /a option provides you with a list of all unique words and the
number of times they occur in the text.
Analyzing Your File
Many users have different ways of using WC and interpreting the
analyzer's output. By using such statistics as the number of unique
words, sentence length, syllables, etc. a writer can gage to see if
their writing is too complex, or too easy, for their specific target
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audience. The Readability Index allows the writer a simple, yet
effective, means of judging this. Appendix A provides a table to help
understand what the Readability Index means. Also, a writer can avoid
redundancy by checking the most used words. If the word 'extremely'
is one of the most words used in your writing, a thesaurus may be in
order. Although the concept of the program originally was to provide
writers with a utility that would help them target their writing,
other uses exist. Several users are using the character distribution
portion of the program to solve cryptograms. Still others are using
WC to analyze the works of many major authors.
Summary
WC can be an indispensable tool for writers, and a great educational
device. We hope that this utility will improve your writing. Please
remember that this product is brought to you through shareware, and
your support is greatly appreciated. If you are using WC, please
register your version. We want to make WC into the product that you
want, but to do this we need your support. Your questions, criticism,
and suggestions are welcomed, and we look forward to hearing from you!
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APPENDIX A
The Readability Index
Description Average Syllables Readability Grade
Sentence per 100 Index
Length Words
Very Easy 8 or less 123 or less 90-100 5
Easy 11 131 80-90 6
Fairly Easy 14 139 70-80 7
Standard 17 147 60-70 8-9
Fairly Difficult 21 167 50-60 10-12
Difficult 25 167 30-50 13-16
Very difficult 29 192 0-30 16+
The following formula is used to calculate the Flesch Readability
Index:
((206.835-84.6*w1)-1.015*(s1))
where:
w1 = average word length in syllables
s1 = average sentence length in words
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