Shareware Overload/ShartewareOverload.cdr/wp/readplus.zip/READ.DOC

Text File | 1990-07-10 | 62KB | 1,793 lines

              INTRODUCTION

Readability Plus analyzes your writing on the basis of a
sophisticated language analysis system that identifies sentences
that aren't appropriate for particular kinds of writing.  It
helps you ensure that what you've written will be interesting
and easily understood by your intended audience.  It is not a
spelling checker or a grammar checker.  In fact, it assumes that
what you've written is already mechanically correct.  It focuses
on more than 25 aspects of writing that makes your text "come
alive" for your readers.  Except for its even more powerful "big
brother," Corporate Voice, it is the only IBM-PC program that
tailors its suggestions to different styles of writing.  And
unless you think that a technical manual and a love letter
should be written the same way, you'll find Readability Plus to
be one of your most valuable writing tools.

Even if you're already a good writer, Readability Plus can still
provide you with valuable assistance by helping you tailor your
writing to the audience you're trying to reach.  And if you're
not particularly proud of your writing skills, the program can
save you hours of revision time and embarrassment by identifying
the sentences your manager, teacher, or editor is sure to
criticize.


Features

Readability Plus directly reads files created with WordPerfect,
Microsoft Word, WordStar, and WordStar 2000; it can also read
any ASCII (text) file.

Readability Plus generates four readability indices:  the
Flesch-Kincaid Index, the Flesch Reading Ease Index, Gunning's
Fog Index, and LIX (the technical name for RIX).

Readability Plus does a "mortar and bricks" analysis based on
the most common English words.  There are three measures of
"mortar:  comparing your writing to the words that comprise 20%
of most English text, the 450 words that comprise 60%, and the
2450 words that comprise 80% of most writing.  Similarly,
Readability Plus will analyze the "bricks" (difficult words)
percentages against words not found on the list of the 80% Most
Common Words (which has 2450 words).

The program's displays include:

..  "Teardrop" or style diagram of the text (Display 11)
..  Percentages of the nine different types of sentences
    (Displays 12 and 31).
..  Long words per sentence (Displays 13 and 32).
..  Words per sentence (Displays 14 and 33).
..  Consecutive short words (Display 15).
..  Consecutive long words (Display 16).
..  Word lengths (Display 21).
..  Bricks that have been used in the text (Display 22).
..  Ratio of bricks to mortar (Display 23).
..  Comments on word choice (Display 24).
..  Overall evaluation I (Display 40)
..  General evaluation II (Display 41).

..  General comments and tips on how to make your writing more
    readable (Display 42).
..  Number of sentences and words in your text (Display 43).


               YOUR FIRST SESSION

If you've made a backup copy of your original diskette, you can
proceed with your first Readability Plus session.  This section
presents instructions on how to conduct a simple analysis of a
text and examine the results.

If you do not have a hard disk, remember that you should work
with a copy of the program diskette and not with the original.


              PREPARATIONS

..  Start the computer.

If you only have diskette drives:

..  Insert the copy of the Readability Plus diskette in diskette
    drive A.

..  Type:

 read

..  Press Enter.

If you have a hard disk, copy the diskette or files to a
directory you've already created and named (for instance)
READPLUS.  Log into that subdirectory and type:

 read

..  Press Enter.

When you have successfully loaded the program, the main menu
will appear on your screen.


               BACKING OUT WITH F1

In Readability Plus, you can always try out something to see
what will happen.  This makes it easier to explore the function
keys and menus.  If something unexpected happens, you can always
back out of the situation very easily by pressing F1.  This will
take you back where you were without any changes having been
made.  If you press F1 repeatedly, you will be returned to the
main menu.



            IF YOU NEED HELP

Readability Plus has a built-in help function (F10) that
provides you with brief, helpful information while you are
working.  Also, once you register your copy, you can receive
additional support by calling 1-301-294-7453 and giving the
representative your registration number.


          BRIEF REVIEW OF THE MAIN MENU

You may select options from the main menu in two ways:

..  Type the desired number (1, 2, 3, 9 or 0).
..  Press Enter.

You can, however, speed things up a little by using the function
keys:

..  Press the desired function key (F1, F2, F3, or F9).

Note that if you wish to exit the program, you must still
press 0.


Option 1 -- How Readability Plus Works

When the main menu appears on the screen:

..  Press F1.

Information about the following will appear:

..  The files that you can analyze.
..  How you can eliminate parts of a text to improve analysis.

Both of the above are discussed in greater detail in the next
section.

..  Press any key to return to the main menu.


Option 2 -- Analyze a Text

When you select Option 2 (Analyze a Text), you must type the
following:

..  Where the program can find the text (disk drive,
    subdirectory).
..  The name of the text (filename).
..  Where the results are to be stored.
..  Which analysis pattern you wish to have the text compared
    with.

In addition, you can type:

..  A title, so that you can easily identify the text when you
    look at the results later.


You can look at a list of all the files that can be analyzed or
a list of the files that have been previously analyzed.  You can
also look at texts located on other disks (hard disk or
diskettes) in other drives.


Option 3 - Examine Results of Previous Analyses

When you select Option 3 (Look at the results of previous
analyses), a list appears on the screen.  This list contains the
names of the results of previous analyses.  You can also look at
texts located on other disks (hard disk or diskettes) in other
drives.


Option 9 - Select Background Color

If you have a color monitor, you may choose between two color
combinations:

..  Black background with yellow and green text.
..  Blue background with yellow and green text.
..  Pressing F9 toggles you between the two color combinations.

If you have a single-color monitor, nothing happens when you
press F9.


Option 0 - Exit From Readability Plus

Press 0 to exit from Readability Plus.


             USEFUL TIPS ON PRINTING

If a printer is connected to your computer you may, at any time,
obtain a paper copy of the screen content.

Proceed as follows:

..  Check that the printer is ON-LINE (ready for printing).
..  Hold down the Shift key and press PrtSc.

The screen content will be copied over onto the printer.  On
some printers, certain special characters and boxes may not be
printed out exactly as they appear on the screen since all
printers do not support all of the graphics characters that are
used.  However, the text should be the same as it appeared on
the screen.


            ANALYZING A TEXT

This section explains how to find out which files you can
analyze with Readability Plus, how to eliminate parts of texts
to improve analysis and how analysis is carried out.  It also
explains the submenus that appear at the bottom of the screen.



Which Files Can You Analyze?

Texts that you can analyze must:

..  Have been written using WordPerfect, Microsoft Word,
    WordStar or WordStar 2000.

Or

..  Have been written using some other word processing program
    and then saved as, or converted to, an ASCII file.

Readability Plus can read directly files created with
WordPerfect, Microsoft Word, WordStar, and Word Star 2000
without having to translate them to ASCII.

Both WordPerfect (version 5.0 and above) and Microsoft Word
(version 4.0 and above) place header records at the beginning of
files they create that tell programs such as Readability Plus
which word processor created them.  Therefore if you're using
one of these packages, you don't have to do a thing. Readability
Plus will "know" which format to use and will do the necessary
translation on its own.

If your document was not created with one of those packages,
just before the analysis begins, Readability Plus will display a
message that says:

 FILE FORMAT
 Please select your file format from one of the
 following:
 1.  ASCII file
 2.  WordPerfect Version 4
 3.  WordStar
 4.  WordStar 2000

All you need to do in this case is press the corresponding key
(1-4), and the program will begin the analysis.


Analyzing ASCII or Text Files

When you save a text in ASCII format, all or most of the special
characters are eliminated.  These can include the markings used
for headings, bolding and underlining.  The specific special
characters that are eliminated will depend on which word
processing program you were using.

Most word processing programs include a program called "Convert"
or something similar.  This program can be used to automatically
eliminate the control characters that would otherwise disturb
the Readability Plus analysis.  The converted file is called an
ASCII file, although the word processing program in question may
call it "DOS text", "plain text", "output file" or something
similar.

Remember that it if you convert a text file to ASCII format, you
should also save it in its original form.  This can be done
using the "Save as" function in your word processing program or
by first copying the file and then converting the copy.  You

should keep a copy of the original since when you convert to
ASCII, you will loose most of or all of the special formatting
codes that have been entered into the text.  Consequently, if
you were to use it in your word processing program again, you
would have to re-do a lot of work.

You can use the DOS command TYPE to see whether or not a file
has become an ASCII file.  To look at the text file named
EXAMPLE.ASC (which must be on the diskette in the default drive
or in the default subdirectory on a hard disk) you can do as
follows:

..  Type:

 type example.asc

..  Press Enter.

The text file named EXAMPLE.ASC will now be written on the
screen if it's an ASCII file.  If you see strange characters,
you haven't converted the file to ASCII properly.


          READABILITY PLUS AND HEADINGS

You should always eliminate headings so that your analysis will
be accurate.  If you do not do so, each heading may be chained
to the sentence that immediately follows.

This is because Readability Plus defines the end of a sentence
as follows:

..  Period followed by an upper case letter.
..  Colon followed by an upper case letter.
..  Question mark followed by an upper case letter.
..  Exclamation point followed by an upper case letter.
..  Semicolon.

Since a period does not normally follow a heading, the heading
is chained to the next sentence.  This causes the program to
rate the sentence as being longer (and thus more difficult) than
it really is.  However, if you put a period after the heading,
the heading itself will be considered a sentence.


        HOW TO ELIMINATE PARTS OF A TEXT

It is not necessary to analyze an entire text.  You can
eliminate part of the text or different parts of the text.  This
may be done by marking the parts of the text that are to be
analyzed by means of special characters before starting
analysis.

If you do not wish to eliminate one or more parts of your text,
you may proceed to the section headed Starting Analysis.  If you
do wish to eliminate one or more parts of your text, you should
work with a copy of the text and not with the original.  If you
work with the original, it means that you may have to change it
back to its original form again.  If you work with a copy, the
original will remain unchanged.

If Readability Plus has been loaded into your computer, the
first thing to do is exit from the program.  To do this, proceed
as follows:

..  Press F1, whereupon the main menu will appear.
..  Press F10 to exit from Readability Plus.

Start your word processing program and load (retrieve) the text
that you are going to analyze.  If you are not using
WordPerfect, Microsoft Word, WordStar or WordStar 2000, you
should retrieve the ASCII file that you have created.

..  Move the cursor to the location immediately preceding the
    text you wish to eliminate.
..  Hold down the Alt key and enter the following on the
    numerical keypad located at right on most keyboards):

 244

..  Release the Alt key.

You have now marked the beginning of the part of the text that
is not to be analyzed with the ASCII "fish hook" character.

The end of the part of the text that is not to be analyzed must
also be marked, but using a different character.

..  Move the cursor to the location immediately after the part
    of the text that is not to be analyzed.

..  Hold down the Alt key and type the following on the
    numerical keypad at right:

 245

..  Release the Alt key.

You can use the same procedure again if you wish to eliminate
additional parts of the text before starting the analysis.



              HOW TO ANALYZE A TEXT

Note!  Remember that the screen display examples shown in this
manual may differ somewhat from those that actually appear on
your screen.  The examples included here are for a
diskette-drive system.  If you have a hard disk, you may see
C:\READPLUS\ instead of A:\.

This section explains how to find out which files can be
analyzed with Readability Plus and how the analysis is car- ried
out.  It also explains the submenus that appear at the bottom of
the screen.

          SELECTING FILES FOR ANALYSIS

When the main menu appears on the screen:

..  Press F2.

A list of all the drives and a list of all the non-program files
in the subdirectory you're logged onto will be shown.  PARENT
(DIR) may also be displayed.  It is Readability Plus' way of
telling you that there are directories and subdirectories on the
disk that are "superior" (i.e., higher on the DOS tree) to the
one you're in.  Files having the following filename extensions
are not shown on the screen since these files do not normally
contain text.

 .BAK
 .BAS
 .COM
 .EXE
 .FX
 .FY
 .FZ
 .RDB
 .SYS

Files extended with .FX, .FY and .FZ are created in Readability
Plus when it analyzes a file.

If the text you are going to analyze is among those whose names
are shown on the screen, proceed as follows:

..  Use the arrow keys to highlight the desired text.
..  Press Enter.

If the file is in a directory that's not listed on the screen,
first select PARENT (DIR) to get a full listing of the
subdirectories, and go on from that display to select first the
proper directory and then the file you want to analyze.

If your file is on another drive, first select the proper drive
letter and then use the procedures described above.

If you're using a color monitor, files are presented in yellow,
directories in violet, and disk drives in blue.


Specifying Where to Store the Analysis Results

After you have specified which text you are going to analyze,
you must tell the program where to store the analysis results.
The following prompt appears:

------------------------------------------------------------
Specify where to store the results (A:\)__
------------------------------------------------------------

Here, the program makes a proposal that you store your results
on the diskette in drive A.  If you wish to accept the proposal:

..  Press Enter.

However, you can also select some other drive or subdirectory.
If, for example, you wish to store your results on the diskette
in drive A in a subdirectory named SPCREAD:

..  Type:

 a:\spcread\

..  Press Enter.

Notice that if you wish to store your results in a subdirectory,
the subdirectory must have been previously established.

If you have analyzed the same text previously, the following
appears:

------------------------------------------------------------
Results:  b:\text1 already exists.
Do you wish to overwrite it (Y/N?)
------------------------------------------------------------

If you have no reason to preserve the previous results, you can
write over them.

..  Type:

 y

If you wish to preserve the previous results, you must enter
another filename for the new results.

..  Type:

 n

The program now prompts you as follows:

------------------------------------------------------------
Specify desired filename for results:__
------------------------------------------------------------

Type in the new filename:

..  Type:

 NEWRES (for example)

..  Press Enter.

The filename you choose may be any name you wish, however you
are limited to eight characters.


Specifying a Title for the Results

The following now appears on the screen:

------------------------------------------------------------
Title of results:
------------------------------------------------------------

Here, you can enter the title that you wish to give to
theresults.  You might enter the author's name or a sentence
that describes the text.  Whatever you enter will appear on the
screen as a reference later on when you look at the results. You
are permitted to enter a maximum of 53 characters.

..  Type the desired title.
..  Press Enter.


Selecting an Analysis Pattern

By now, the text analysis pattern menu should be on your
screen.  You may choose any of the 9 styles listed against which
to analyze your text:

 1.  General purpose
 2.  Children's book
 3.  Newspaper article
 4.  Advertising copy
 5.  Novel
 6.  Magazine articles
 7.  Technical manuals
 8.  Government report
 9.  Bureaucratic

If none of patterns 2-9 are suitable for your text, you should
probably select pattern 1 (general purpose).  PATTERNS 7, 8 AND
9 ARE NOT TO BE CON-SIDERED GOOD EXAMPLES.  They are included
simply to show how technical manuals, government reports and
bureaucratic memorandums are usually written.  We hope that your
writing will be better than typical examples of these.

To write a well crafted technical manual or government report,
we suggest that you use style # 6 (magazine), # 3(newspaper) or
# 1 (general purpose writing).  When the analysis is complete,
you can examine the sentences that were found to be outside the
selected pattern outline (deviant sentences).

Since the text in the example is general in nature, you will
select pattern 1 (general purpose).  The program uses this as
the default response.  As a result, all you have to do to select
pattern 1 is to press Enter (you do not have to type in 1).

Proceed as follows to select pattern 1:

..  Press Enter.

Sentences that fall within the pattern outline are considered
normal by Readability Plus.  Any sentence that lies outside the
pattern outline is considered deviant, and it is saved by the
program in special result files named EXAMPLE.FX, EXAMPLE.FY and
EXAMPLE.FZ.

After analysis is completed, you will be able to look at the
sentences that deviate from the pattern outline.

If you wish to use pattern 1 (general purpose):

..  Press Enter.

If you wish to use any of patterns 2-9:

..  Type the pattern number:

 2 (For example):

..  Press Enter.


Checking Your Selections

Finally, you are given an opportunity to check the selections
you have made.  If you have made a mistake, or if you change
your mind, it's easy to start again from the beginning:

..  Press the Esc key.

If everything is OK:

..  Press Enter.

If you wish to make changes, return to the main menu and begin
again.


Analysis

The program now analyzes the text and saves the results on
disk.  While this is happening, the "teardrop" diagram appears
on the screen and the program enters a dot as each sentence is
analyzed.  When the program has read and analyzed the entire
text, the results are stored on disk (diskette or hard disk)
under the filenames EXAMPLE.FX, EXAMPLE.FY and EXAMPLE.FZ.  If,
for example, your file had been named PROPOSAL.DOC, the names
would be PROPOSAL.FX, PROPOSAL.FY, and PROPOSAL.FZ.


    BRIEF EXPLANATION OF THE ANALYSIS DISPLAY SUBMENU

Readability Plus creates a set of analysis displays that can
tell you a great deal about your writing.  Before proceeding to
look at the displays, it might be advisable to quickly review
the options available to you on the submenu that appears at the
bottom of your screen:

------------------------------------------------------------
1Menu 2Analys 3Load 4Cntent 5Plot 6Sntnc 7Print 8Tips
9Ideal 10Help
------------------------------------------------------------

To choose a function on the submenu, simply press the
corresponding function key.  To select 3Load, press F3, etc.
The submenu functions are available at any time that the submenu
appears on the screen.  5Plot and 6Sntnc only appear when you
are looking at the text's teardrop diagram (Display 11).

1Menu

This function permits you to exit at any time from the result
display that is currently shown and return to the main menu.

 ..  Press F1.

2Analys

Permits you to leave the currently shown result display at any
time to analyze a new text.

 ..  Press F2.

3Load

Permits you to leave the currently shown result display at any
time and retrieve (load) a new Readability Plus result display.

 ..  Press F3.

4Cntent

Enables you to call up at any time a display showing a list of
all of the result displays that are available.

 ..  Press F4.

5Plot

When the "teardrop" diagram appears on the screen, each
individual sentence is represented by a dot on the diagram.
When more than one sentence is represented at the same location
on the drawing, the dot grows larger for each sentence that is
added.  These dots can be replaced with numbers that indicate
how many sentences have been plotted at each position.

 ..  Press F5.

Pressing F5 toggles between numbers and dots.  The highest
number that can appear is a 9.  This means that a 9 will appear
even though more than nine dots have been plotted at the
position in question.

6Sntnc

Sentences that fall outside the pattern outline that you
selected are considered as deviant by the computer.  Using the
arrow keys, you can move the cursor around in the teardrop
diagram to mark deviant sentences.

Proceed as follows to mark a deviant sentence.

 ..  Press F6.
 ..  Press Enter.

If there is more than one deviant sentence at a single position,
you can press Enter repeatedly to see all of the sentences.

7Print

 ..  Press F7.

When you select this function, the following submenu appears at
the bottom of the screen:

------------------------------------------------------------
F1=Print deviant sentences F2=Print long-word runs
F10=Help Esc=exit
------------------------------------------------------------

This gives you an opportunity to print out all deviant sentences
in your text on the printer.  The printer prints the first words
in each deviant sentence together with a page number and line
number so you can find it quickly.

Proceed as follows to print out a list of the deviant sentences:

 ..  Check that the printer is ON-LINE (ready for printing).
 ..  Press F1.

When printing is finished, you can leave this submenu:

 ..  Press Esc.

You can also print out a list of all long-word runs on the
printer.  A word is considered long if it has seven or more
letters.  A long-word run consists of one or more consecutive
long words.  Only long-word runs containing three or more words
are saved in the results.  Here too, the program prints out a
page number and line number so that you can quickly locate the
long-word runs.

Proceed as follows to print out a list of all long-word runs:

 ..  Check that the printer is ON-LINE (ready for printing)
 ..  Press F2.

When printing is finished, you can leave this submenu:

 ..  Press Esc.

8Tips

You can call up a number of useful tips for each of the result
displays that you look at.  Sometimes these tips consist of
ideal values that you can compare with your own writing.
Sometimes you obtain tips on how to improve your writing.  If
you wish to look at the tips:

 ..  Press F8.

When you have finished reading the tips:

 ..  Press Esc.

9Ideal

An ideal display is available for each result display that you
look at.  To compare your result display with the ideal display,
proceed as follows:

 ..  Press F9.

When you have finished looking at the ideal display:

 ..  Press Esc.

10Help

Readability Plus has a built-in help function (F10) which
provides you with brief, helpful information as your work
proceeds.

 ..  Press F10.

When you have finished with the help information:

 ..  Press Esc.


         UNDERSTANDING ANALYSIS RESULTS

This section explains the displays created in a Readability Plus
analysis.  Here, you will learn how to call up the different
displays, how to use them to your advantage, and compare your
values to the ideal values.


          SELECTING AN ANALYSIS DISPLAY

To select an analysis display, you must respond to the following
prompt:

------------------------------------------------------------
Desired display:_
------------------------------------------------------------

If you know which display you wish to look at and you know its
number:

 ..  Type the display's number.
 ..  Press Enter.

If you do not know which display you wish to look at or if you
are uncertain about its number:

 ..  Press F4.

You can now look through a list of the displays that are
available.  When you have decided which one you wish to look at:

 ..  Type the display's number.
 ..  Press Enter.

Browsing Among the Displays

You can also browse among the different displays by pressing
PgDn and PgUp.  PgDn moves you forward to the next display.
PgUp moves you back to the previous display.


     EXPLANATION OF THE DIFFERENT ANALYSIS DISPLAYS

The different analysis displays are explained below.  Remember
that you can always call up useful tips or ideal patterns via F8
and F9 on the submenu.

In this section, we will use part of the first chapter from Tom
Sawyer, by Mark Twain as an example that provides good analysis
results.  Naturally, your writing doesn't always have to
resemble Tom Sawyer, but even if you are usually writing for
adults and dealing with more complicated subjects than rafting
down the Mississippi, it might be a good idea to use a similar
writing style.  If you wish to look at the result displays while
you are reading this chapter, proceed as follows:

 ..  Start Readability Plus.
 ..  Press F3 to view the Sawyer analysis.
 ..  Highlight SAWYER.
 ..  Press Enter.

The teardrop diagram will appear on the screen when the analysis
is finished (Display 11).

Another way to get to this point is to:

 ..  Press F2 to do a new analysis
 ..  Highlight SAWYER
 ..  Press Enter
 ..  Answer yes (Y) when you're asked if it's OK to write over
     the previous analysis of SAWYER.


Display 11 - TEARDROP Diagram

Display 11 consists of the "teardrop" diagram.  On this dia-
gram, each sentence in the text is represented by a dot.  The
computer positions these dots according to the number of words
in the sentence and the number of long words each sentence
contains.  A word is considered long if it has more than seven
letters.

The series of very small dots on the diagram constitutes the
"ideal curve".  This depicts the ideal relationship between
sentence length and number of long words per sentence.  An
asterisk (*) indicates the focal point of the text on the
diagram.

Ideally, the sentences (dots) should be spread evenly to the
left and to the right of the ideal curve, and the focal point
falls on, or close to, the ideal curve.  Most of the sentences
should lie within pattern 1 - normal diagram.  An easy-to-read
text has numerous sentences near the bottom of the diagram. This
means that many sentences contain only short words.  Note that

the sentences in the Sawyer diagram are arranged in such a
pattern.

The Sawyer sentences are located on both sides of the ideal
curve.  The focal point is located at 14.0/1.8 which is slightly
to the right of the ideal curve.  Good.  There are no sentences
in the upper left-hand area (where complicated sentences are
plotted).  Very good.  Several sentences have been plotted out
to the right in the area used for wordy and pompous sentences.
If you press F6, move the cursor to the rightmost sentence and
press Enter, you will see that the first sentence in the text is
located there.

To obtain an idea of what this type of writing resembles most,
proceed as follows:

 ..  Study the percentages in the column to the right of the
     teardrop diagram and see which pattern had the highest
     percentage of matches for this text.

 ..  Press F8 to see what the different patterns are called.
     Select the desired pattern with the up or down arrow keys or
     by typing in the pattern number to see how well the text in
     question matches the selected pattern.

Sentences that fall within the pattern outline are considered
normal by Readability Plus.  Any sentence that lies outside the
pattern outline is considered deviant.

If you have a printer, you can print out a list of all of the
deviant sentences.  The program presents you with the first few
words in each deviant sentence and tells you the line on which
the sentence is located.

Proceed as follows to print a list of the deviant sentences on
the printer:

 ..  Make certain that the printer is ON-LINE (ready for
     printing).
 ..  Press F7.
 ..  Press F1.

A list of the deviant sentences will now be printed.

You may continue by examining another result display.

Display 12 - Sentence Characteristics

Each sentence in the text is classified as one of the following
types:

 ..  Simple - short sentence containing short words
 ..  Normal - medium sentence containing short words
 ..  Narrative
 ..  Foggy
 ..  Wordy - long sentence containing short words
 ..  Elegant
 ..  Difficult
 ..  Pompous - long sentence containing long words
 ..  Complicated - short sentence containing long words

Display 12 shows the percentages of each type of sentence in the
text in question.  The spread around the focal point is a
measure of the extent to which the sentences are spread in the
teardrop diagram.

The Sawyer text contains mostly simple and normal sentences.  It
is easy to read.  The spread around the focal point is greater
than 8, which is good.  The bars on the diagram get shorter as
one moves to the right, and this complies with the pattern found
in the ideal display (press F9).  The text does not contain any
complicated sentences.

If you want to learn more about focal points, spread, ideal
curve, etc.  please refer to the detailed chapter in the hard
cover manual you'll receive when you register the program.


Display 13 - Long Words Per Sentence

Display 13 presents the number of long words per sentence.  If
you use too many long words, your writing is difficult to read,
especially if you do not use many small words to "dilute" the
text.  As much as possible, you should avoid using more than
nine long words in a single sentence.

You can find out how many sentences have more than a specified
number of long words.  If, for example, you wish to see which
sentences have more than five long words:

 ..  Type:

 5-

 ..  Press Enter.

The resulting display shows the number of long words per
sentence for the Sawyer text, setting a good example for
easy-to-read writing.  Most of the sentences contain 0, 1, or 2
long words.  The gently rounded profile of the bars on the
diagram indicates that the language used was written by a single
person.  In situations where a number of people have edited the
text, the pattern is usually more irregular.

Display 14 - Sentence Lengths

Display 14 presents the number of words per sentence.  People
often mistakenly believe that easy-to-read writing consists of
short sentences.  However, the results provided by Readability
Plus show that this isn't necessarily true.  Easy-to-read
writing can contain long sentences if the number of long words
per sentence is kept low.  The upper limit for sentence length
is about 35 words.

You can find out how many sentences have more than a specified
number of words.  If, for example, you wish to know which
sentences are longer than 35 words, proceed as follows:

..  Type:

 35-

..  Press Enter.


Display 15 - Consecutive Short Words

The more short words you write in succession, the easier it will
be for your reader to grasp your meaning.  Display 15 presents
the number of consecutive short words.

As you can see, the Sawyer text has many short words in
succession.  This improves readability.  Only about 7% of the
short-word runs contain only a single word.


Display 16 - Consecutive Long Words

When you write texts containing numerous facts that force you to
use long words, it is important that you avoid the use of
long-word runs.  Display 16 shows the number of consecutive long
words.

The display shows that more than 40% of the long-word runs
contained a single long word.  This indicates that many long
words are surrounded by short words.  Such a configuration is
extremely easy to read.  The fact that the ratio of short-word
runs to long-word runs was 7.44 indicates that the text contains
many short-word runs.  Even 3.5 would have been a good value.


Display 21 - Word Lengths

The words in the examined text were divided into groups based on
length.  This display shows the percentages of words containing
1-3 letters, 4-6 letters, ..., 25 or more letters.

You can find out how many words of a specified length were
used.  If, for example, you wish to find out how many words had
14 or more letters:

..  Type:

 14-

..  Press Enter.

If you want to find out how many words had precisely four
letters:

..  Type:

 -4-

..  Press Enter.

If you want to find out how many words had 4-6 letters
inclusive:

..  Type:

 4-6

..  Press Enter.

The word lengths in the Sawyer texts averaged 4.0 letters (a
short, therefore good, value).  The text did not contain a
single word longer than 14 letters.  That's one of the reasons
it's so easy to read.


Display 22 - Bricks

When Readability Plus analyzes a text, it keeps a record of all
the different words and how often they have been used.  In
Display 22, the program has segregated the 2450 most frequently
used words in the English language.  The remaining words (called
bricks) are presented in a list which also tells you how many
times each of these words was used.

To browse forward in this list:

..  Press Enter.

Here, you can find all of the words that begin in a certain
way.  If you wish to look at all words in the Sawyer text that
begin with "con":

..  Type:

 con

..  Press Enter.

Here, you can see a number of imaginative words begin with
"con".  Moreover, you can find all the words that end in a
specified series of letters.  If, for example, you wish to look

at all the words that end in "ing":

..  Type:

 ing

..  Press Enter.

You can also find all of the words having a specified minimum
number of letters.  If, for example, you wish to look at all of
the words that have at least 13 letters:

..  Type:

 13-

..  Press Enter.

Moreover, you can find all of the words which, for example, have
a maximum of 5 letters:

..  Type:

 -5

..  Press Enter.

Finally, you can combine all four of the above.  If, for
example, you wish to find all of the words that begin with "s"
and have between 4 and 7 letters inclusive:

..  Type:

 4-7 s

..  Press Enter.

If, for example, you want to find all of the words that end in
"ing" and have at least 12 letters:

..  Type:

 12- -ing

..  Press Enter.

Remember, however, that the 2450 most frequently used words in
the English language were eliminated before making the above
analyses.


Display 23 - Mortar and Bricks

The 2450 most frequently used words are called mortar.  All
other words are called bricks.  Usually, a text contains around
20% bricks.  If this percentage is higher, it indicates that
more difficult words have been selected in your text than in a
normal text.  Display 23 shows the percentages of brick and
mortar.

For the Sawyer text, Display 23 shows that there is a favorable
ratio between mortar and bricks.  This text has 17% bricks which
is excellent.


Display 24 - Comments on Choice of Words

If Readability Plus has any comments to make on the words you
have chosen to use in the text, they are presented in Display
24.  It indicates, for example, whether you have used both
"thru" and "through" in your text.  It also indicates how many
words were needlessly prolonged, thus making your text more
difficult.  For instance, you might have used the word
"objective" when "goal" would have sufficed.

The comments in Display 24 are based on the list of synonyms
that is included with Readability Plus.  This list is in a file
named SYNLIST.RDB (located on your original diskette).


Display 31 - Sentence Characteristics

Display 31 shows how each sentence has been evaluated, starting
from the beginning of the text and proceeding sentence by
sentence.  Here, you can easily see which sentences are
"narrative" and which are "difficult".  You should compare this
with the characteristic breakdowns presented in Displays 11 and
12.  If, in spite of their disadvantages, you must include
complicated sentences in your writing, you should make every
effort to prevent them from being bunched together.  This also
applies to pompous and wordy sentences.

Here, you see that the sentences in the Sawyer text vary widely
with regard to characteristics.  Only a few sentences are
pompous and they are well scattered throughout the text.  If a
text consists of more than 60 sentences, you can browse forward
as follows:

..  Press Enter.

You can find all of the deviant sentences (those which lie
outside the area covered by the pattern outline).  If, for
example, you wish to look at all deviant sentences starting with
sentence No. 10:

..  Type:

 10-

..  Press Enter.

You are now provided with information about the first deviant
sentence.  To look at the next (and then the next, etc.),
proceed as follows:

..  Press Enter repeatedly.

Displays 31 and 32 make it possible for you to find where any
"uphill slopes" occur in the text.

Display 32 - Long Words Per Sentence

Display 32 presents the number of long words per sentence.  Here
too, you can find the deviant sentences.

The number of long words per sentence varies considerably in the
Sawyer text.  There are only two sentences containing more than
nine long words, and they are widely separated.  This is one of
the reasons that the text is so easy to read.

If a text contains more than the 60 sentences shown, you may
browse forward:

..  Press Enter.

You can find all the deviant sentences.  If you wish to look at
all deviant sentences starting with sentence No.  10:

..  Type:

 10-

..  Press Enter.

You are now provided with information about the first deviant
sentence.  To look at the next (and then the next, etc.),
proceed as follows:

..  Press Enter repeatedly.


Display 33 - Sentence Lengths

Display 33 shows how long each sentence is, starting at the
beginning of the text and proceeding forward sentence by
sentence.  As a result, you can easily see how successful you
have been in varying sentence length throughout the text.

In the Sawyer text, sentence length varies considerably,
although you can find examples of long sentences that are
bunched together.  Text in which sentences of varying lengths
are well scattered captures and retains a reader's interest.

If a text contains more than the 60 sentences shown, you may
browse forward:

..  Press Enter.


Display 40 - General Evaluation I

Display 40 presents an evaluation of the chosen text based on
the Flesch-Kincaid, Flesch Reading Ease, Gunning's Fog Index,
and LIX readability indices.  The scores given to the text based
on each of these indices are presented near the bottom of the
screen.

Display 41 - General Evaluation II

Display 41 presents a general evaluation of the following five
technical factors the text:

..  Distance from the ideal curve.
..  Spread around the focal point.
..  Compliance with the ideal curve.
..  Percentage of mortar.
..  Percentage of sentences containing only short words.

Here, you can read the final value assigned to the text for each
factor.  For example, you can see that the distance from the
focal point to the ideal curve is 1.2.  A text's focal point is
the point on the diagram that represents the average sentence
length and the average number of long words per sentence.  (All
words containing seven or more characters are defined as long by
Readability Plus).  But to fully understand this display, you'll
need the hardcover manual which you will receive when you
register the program.

Each factor can be compared with the ideal factors.  To compare
the different factors, you must invoke Tips and Ideal from the
submenu.

Any writer could be proud of the general evaluation as good as
the one earned by the Sawyer text.


Display 42 - General Comments

This display presents you with advice on how to improve your
writing with regard to the percentage of long words per
sentence, the number of words per sentence and the spread ofthe
sentences on the teardrop diagram.


Display 43 - Number of Sentences and Words

Display 43 presents the following numeric data:

..  Number of characters in text.
..  Number of words in text
..  Number of short words in text
..  Number of sentences in text.
..  Average number of words per sentence and how many of them
    are (on the average) short and long.


            LIST OF SYNONYMS

Display 24 identifies words in your text that are synonyms or
homonyms, and asks you to be sure you've selected the correct
word.  It also allows you to create a personal "hit list" of
words to avoid, and suggests words that might be used in their
place.  This list of words is in a file named SYNLIST.RDB, and
it is on your program diskette.  You may choose to replace our
list with one of your own, or to make it even more useful, you
may add to the list words specific to your own organization or
field.

Changing SYNLIST.RDB

You can use any word processing program which writes or converts
to ASCII to add words to or remove words from the list of
synonyms.

You may wish to add words in order to:

..  Avoid using them.
..  Remember explanations.

When you use a word that is in the list of synonyms, you may
obtain comments on it through Display 24.

The list of synonyms does not have any effect on your text.
This means that any words that you wish to avoid are not
eliminated automatically.  However, you are reminded of whether
or not you should use a particular word.  To make a change in a
list of synonyms, proceed as follows (for example):

..  Start your word processing program.
..  Load the program called SYNLIST.RDB

You may now add synonyms to or delete synonyms from the list
using the ordinary word processing procedures.

To make a change, proceed as follows:

..  Use upper case letters for the key words.
..  Enter the # character (if you do not have it on your regular
    keyboard hold Alt down and type 35 using the keys on the
    numeric keypad) immediately after the word in order to
    search for a synonym.
..  Type a space immediately after the word in order to search
    for a word whose first letter is the same.

For each key word you can type a comment containing a maximum of
40 characters.  You can write these using lower case letters.

Example:

..  REGISTER - Searches for the word "register" in your text.
..  STATION - Searches for all words that start with station.

A part of SYNLIST might appear as follows:

 PURCHASE buy
 RECORD enter (into)
 DEPOSIT save
 ACQUIRE get

Note!  You must save SYNLIST.RDB as a non-document or ASCII
file.

Creating Your Own Lists of Synonyms

You are permitted to have different lists of synonyms for
different types of text.  You create these lists as ordinary
word processing program documents, as described above.  However,
you must save each list as a non-document.  Remember to select
names for your synonym lists that are meaningful so that you can
retrieve them easily.  Activating One of Your Own Lists of
Synonyms

You can activate one of your own lists of synonyms by typing its
name when you start Readability Plus.  Suppose the desired list
of synonyms was named MYLIST.RDB.  You'd proceed as follows to
change to it:

..  Type:

 read s=c:mylist.rdb

..  Press Enter.


Installing a List of Synonyms

If you have DOS version 3.0 or later, it is advisable to put the
list of synonyms in the same subdirectory and disk drive as
Readability Plus.  However, you can also put the list of
synonyms in the subdirectory that is active when you start the
program.  You will find the DOS version number on the DOS
diskette that came with your computer.

If your version of DOS is earlier (lower) than 3.0, you can put
the list of synonyms in the directory that is active when you
start the program.  Note that this also applies to lists of
synonyms that you create yourself.


          EXITING FROM READABILITY PLUS

To exit from Readability Plus, you must first return to the main
menu.

..  Press F1.

The main menu appears.  To exit from Readability Plus, you must
select Exit on the main menu:

..  Press 0.
..  Press Enter.

When the system prompt (A>) appears, you can remove your
diskette, concluding the Readability Plus session.


             BASIC CONCEPTS

In this section, we will review the basic concepts underlying
the Readability Plus program.

       WHAT AND HOW DOES READABILITY PLUS MEASURE?

When we speak, we are able to watch our listener and observe his
reactions.  Unfortunately, this is not true when we write.
Readability Plus gives you some idea of how readable someone
will find your writing.

The Readability Plus method is based on statistical procedures
that measure word length, sentence length, percentage of
commonly encountered words, and percentage of unusual words.

Naturally, there are many other factors that affect the ease
with which a reader can understand the message we are trying to
get across.  For example, Readability Plus has no way of knowing
how familiar the reader is with the subject at hand, how
interested he is in it, or his general level of education.
Syntax errors that flaw the structure of a sentence and unclear
references within sentences are also examples of factors that
Readability Plus cannot measure.  However, it does provide you
with a useful and objective measure of the quality of your
writing.  One could say that a good readability rating is a
necessary but not an all- embracing factor of a piece of
writing.

While creating Readability Plus, Roland Larson analyzed
approximately 600,000 words in texts taken from many different
fields.  These analyses showed that texts which we consider easy
to read earn good readability ratings, while texts that people
consider difficult to read and to understand fail to earn good
ratings.  One example of good writing is the excerpt from Tom
Sawyer, by Mark Twain, used in this manual.


            LANGUAGE BUILDING BLOCKS

Writing can be compared with building a brick wall.  Here, the
bricks form the wall itself, but in order to join them together,
you must use plenty of mortar.  The ratio of bricks to mortar
must be properly balanced in a stable, well-built wall.  In
language, we use many small words and bridging words that serve
as mortar.  All other words are considered bricks.

Readability Plus contains the 2450 most frequently used words in
the English language.  They are considered mortar, and all other
words are considered bricks.


Bricks

Bricks are the words that carry the information we wish to
convey.  The following are examples of bricks:

 snowstorm, twilight, television, chimney, computer.

Any sentence that contains more than ten bricks will probably be
difficult to understand.

Mortar

What percentage of a text is normally made up of commonly used
words?

..  The four most frequently used words (and, in, that, a) make
    up 10% of a text.
..  The ten most frequently used words make up 20% of a text.
..  The twenty most frequently used words make up 30% of a text.
..  The 450 most frequently used words make up 60% of a text.
..  The 2450 most frequently used words make up 80% of a text.

If you want your writing to be pleasant and easy to read, you
must use plenty of mortar.  In good writing, bricks and mortar
are properly balanced.  A sentence that contains too many bricks
will be somewhat foggy and perhaps complicated.  A sentence
having too much mortar will be wordy.  However, situations do
arise in which a sentence containing only short words is needed
to provide a "break" in the text so that the reader will be able
to recover his capacity to digest a highly informative section.

Readability Plus measures the ratio of bricks to mortar and, if
properly balanced, the program will issue a good rating.


Misconceptions About Sentence Length

People often mistakenly conclude that short sentences are needed
for good readability.  However, short sentences must not become
an objective in themselves.  There is no reason not to write
long sentences (though not too long).  Mixing short and long
sentences together is good practice.  However, it is important
to note that sentences should not contain too many long words.


Teardrop Diagram

Readability Plus measures the total number of words and the
number of long words in each sentence.  (A long word is a word
having seven or more letters.) Each sentence is assigned a
characteristic depending on where it is located in the teardrop
diagram.

..  A simple sentence is quite short and contains only a few
    long words.
..  A complicated sentence is quite short and contains many long
    words.
..  A wordy sentence is long and contains only a few long words.
..  A pompous sentence is long and contains many long words.

When you analyze a text, you select the pattern against which
you want your sentences to be evaluated.  Readability Plus has
nine patterns for different types of texts (newspaper articles
or technical manuals for example).

Each sentence that falls outside the selected pattern outline is
classified by the program as deviant.  These deviant sentences
are of particular interest to you, since they do not comply with
the intended type of writing.

Readability Plus permits you look at all deviant sentences very
conveniently.  You'll see on the screen the beginnings of the
sentences and their locations in the text.  If you have a
printer connected to your computer, you can also print out a
list of all deviant sentences.  Here too, you will be provided
with information that enables you to find them quickly in the
text.

Good writing requires sentence variation.  Long and short
sentences should be interspersed and they should contain varying
numbers of long words.  The ideal area on the teardrop diagram
contains the following types of sentences:

 normal, simple, somewhat foggy, narrative, difficult, and
 elegant

Sentences that are wordy, complicated, or pompous fall outside
the ideal area.


Does Readability Plus Measure Grammar Usage?

Different grammatical configurations affect sentence length and
word length in different ways; this is reflected in the
"teardrop" diagram.  Readability Plus does not measure
grammatical usage in and of itself, but the effects of certain
grammatical configurations are measured.  Poorly composed
sentences are positioned in the upper left-hand part of the
"teardrop" diagram.


     MORE THAN YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT READABILITY INDICES

Most writing experts don't like readability formulas.  They warn
you that readability indices should be used very cautiously; and
that too much reliance shouldn't be placed on them.

It's important to realize that nearly all readability indices
measure the same two variables:  average sentence length (in
words) and average word length (in syllables or characters).
What's different is how the results are computed and reported.

While these two factors are very important for ensuring easy
readability, other factors such as vocabulary choice are just as
important.  That's why we feel that our Mortar and Bricks
display is at least as important as our display of readability
indices.

It's also important to realize that the evidence that
readability scores are linked to increased comprehension is very
sparse.  Nearly all the original research was done on school
children and military enlisted men, and even with these groups
the results were mixed.  Only a few studies have tried to
validate the scales' use with college graduates, and these
results are even more mixed.

Thus if it's critical that your readers understand what you've
written, there's still no substitute for testing your material
on a small sample of people before distributing it across the
entire company or nation.

Nevertheless, readability indices are here to stay; and
Readability Plus allows you to compute the most popular ones.
It's the only product on the market (with the exception of
Corporate Voice, developed from Readability Plus) that links the
scores to the purpose of your writing.  Therefore, if you're
going to compute readability indices, it's best done with these
programs.

Please, look at all of the displays the program produces and
don't give undue weight to the indices.  The "teardrop"
scattergrams give you much more information from the same
variables; the mortar and bricks display gives you a more useful
revision tool; and the displays that focus on how long/short
words and sentences are intermixed are much better for helping
you keep your readers' interest.

Now that we've given you the warnings, here's a little more
information about the indices included in Readability Plus.


Flesch-Kincaid Index

This index is the one specified by many federal agencies,
including the Defense Department and the IRS.  It uses grade
levels as its measure.  Thus a score of 6.7 means that a student
whose reading score on a standardized test is in the 7th month
of the 6th grade should be able to read the text.


Flesch Reading Ease Index

Many states use this index to analyze insurance policies.  It
uses a scale of 1-100 and goes in the opposite direction from
all the other formulas, with high scores indicating very easy
texts and low ones meaning that the selection is very
difficult.  Insurance policy regulations typically require a
score of 40 or higher.


Gunning's Fog Index

Like Flesch-Kincaid, the Gunning's Fog Index uses grade levels
as its measure.  It's a lot "tougher" however.  A text that
scores 7.9 on the Flesch-Kincaid may score 10.9 or higher on the
Gunning's Fog Index.


LIX

A variation of Gunning's Fog Index, LIX is a popular index in
Scandinavia.  If you divide its scores by 2.5, you'll get the
American grade level equivalent of the selection.

More detailed descriptions of the readability indices, as well
as the mathematical proofs and formulas, are in the manual that
will be provided to you if you register your program.

          SHOULD I UPGRADE TO CORPORATE VOICE?

When it was released in 1989, Readability Plus was the most
powerful style checking program available.  The only product
that has surpassed its style checking ability is our new
release, Corporate Voice.  When we showed Corporate Voice to
dealers and the press recently at the COMDEX computer show, the
response was phenomenal!  A well-known columnist commented:

"Corporate Voice represents an entirely new category of
software.  It may have as profound an effect on corporate
writing as Lotus 1-2-3 had on corporate planning."

Originally, Corporate Voice was just a "style-building engine"
that would allow you to add your own writing styles to a new
version of Readability Plus.

However, as we experimented with the engine, we found that by
adding some features, we could provide an entirely new kind of
writing tool -- a style replicator -- that allows organizations
to produce higher quality writing in much less time.  It also
allows them to give their documents a "look and feel" that can
be as distinctive as a logo.

Our tests show that Corporate Voice allows many writers to
double their productivity.  It also saves managers as much as
80% of the time they spend reviewing drafts.  And, because
writers and managers understand what's needed right from the
start, they emerge from high-pressure writing assignments on
good terms, and more confident and relaxed than ever before!

We were so encouraged by these results that we built all of
Readability Plus' capabilities into Corporate Voice.  This
allowed us to discontinue Readability Plus and support a single
writing package that's easier to use and less expensive than two
separate ones.  Here are just some of Corporate Voice's
features:

You can create style models from what you (or your competitors)
have written.  Corporate Voice can read WordPerfect, Microsoft
Word, WordStar, WordStar 2000 or ASCII text files.  You can
build a style model from as many as 100 documents in less than
10 minutes.  Once created, you can "protect" styles so that
others can use them, but only you can change them.

You can identify "trade words" and calculate "corrected
readability indices." When you create a style, you can designate
difficult words that your audience understands as trade words
(e.g., gas station attendants with 3rd grade reading levels can
read the word "carburetor").  Then, when it calculates
readability indices such as the Flesch- Kincaid, it provides 2
scores:  the standard index, and a corrected index that doesn't
penalize you for using trade words.

You can establish easily-enforced standards for good writing
without technical knowledge.  All you need to know is which
documents have worked successfully in the past.  Then you can
establish standards such as:  "All Final Reports must score at
least 90% on the Corporate Final Report style and have a
corrected Flesch-Kincaid index of 6.5 or less." You can match

your text to the style model on more than a dozen measures of
sentence structure, vocabulary and reading difficulty.
Readability Plus only provides comparisons between your text and
the style on the teardrop display.  Corporate Voice gives you
direct comparisons on nearly all of its displays.

You can master Corporate Voice quickly, thanks to a completely
new manual and more than 50 context-sensitive help screens.  It
will take most people about an hour to master the program, but
if you've used Readability Plus, it should take you no more than
20 minutes.

You can use the expanded set of pre-programmed style models
included with the program, even before you build your own
styles.  We've added a user manual style, a legal style and the
styles of several best-selling authors including Ian Fleming,
Tom Clancy, and Louis Lamour.

You can enjoy many other improvements, including an attractive
storage case and a much larger "hit list' of words to avoid or
be wary of using.

Corporate Voice has a list price of $119.95.  However, most
leading software stores, such as Egghead Discount Software, sell
it at a substantial discount.  And, for a limited time, it is
also available from Scandinavian PC Systems for only $89.95 --
that's a 25% savings!  To order, just call our 24-hour order
line at 1-800-288-SCAN (7226) and use your credit card.  Or, you
can print out the order form from the file called REGISTER and
send it to us at Scandinavian PC Systems, Inc., 51 Monroe
Street, Suite 1101, Rockville, MD 20850.

If you're not ready yet for Corporate Voice, but think you may
wish to purchase it in the future, we suggest you register the
Readability Plus program.  As part of your registration package,
you'll receive a rebate coupon good for $15 off on Corporate
Voice.  This coupon is good no matter where you purchase the
program; simply send it to us with a proof of purchase.