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************************************* * * * P C - R E A D * * * * Version 2.4 * * * ************************************* Copyright 1984 by Wash 'n Ware Software Products P. O. Box 91016-199 Baton Rouge, La. 70821 P C - R E A D Version 2.4 Page i T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S Page PROLOGUE ................................. 1 INTRODUCTION ............................. 2 PC-READ .................................. 4 USING PC-READ ............................ 5 YOUR EVALUATION COPY ..................... 10 P C - R E A D Version 2.4 Page 1 PROLOGUE Jean stopped in the hall. He read the nameplate on the office door -- "W. Hannah, Vice President, Marketing". Jean nervously flicked a few imaginary specks from his coat. "Tap-Tap-Tap," he knocked. "Come in," a voice grumbled. W. Hannah, V. P., Marketing, flipped through the Wall Street Journal as Jean entered and set a slim report on the mahogany desk. "Here's the report you'd asked me to prepare on the Directions proposal." Hannah's eyes never left the Journal as he reached for the Directions proposal, hefted it, and pushed it back. "Too short, do it again. Put more words in it." The gruff response was a dismissal; Hannah turned to the mutual funds as Jean left the office, rushing to add words to a report that hadn't been read. P C - R E A D Version 2.4 Page 2 INTRODUCTION While the above vignette is fictional, you may be familiar with similar situations in real life. Too often, the quality of a piece of writing is judged by how many words it contains. The more words, the better the writing. The longer the sentences, the better the writing. This attitude was reflected in most business and government writing for many years (and still is in many cases). Lately, however, a reader revolt has been brewing. "If this writing is so good, then why do I have so much trouble reading it? Why does it give me headaches? Why do I keep putting off reading it? Why do I find myself reading the same paragraph over and over again? WHY CAN'T I MAKE ANY SENSE OUT OF IT?" Some people now feel that writing should be judged by how effective it is and not by how many words it contains. If you can't read it easily, then the writing is not effective. Since effectively relaying information is vital, many organizations are seriously looking for ways to improve the quality of their writing. Some groups have tried creative writing or grammar classes. These classes are designed to improve a person's writing. Creative writing classes spur the imagination, while grammar classes stress the building-block approach to writing. There is a third technique designed to improve your writing. This approach judges the "readability" of writing. It grades writing from the reader's viewpoint by asking, "Is this document easy to read?" If you've ever struggled through the 1040 Federal Tax instruction booklet, you can appreciate that writing can be difficult to read. The Federal Tax instructions are confusing -- and people don't like to read confusing writing. Why are the 1040 instructions so confusing? The writing is grammatically correct. The Tax instructions treat the subject in as creative a way as possible. Yet, P C - R E A D Version 2.4 Page 3 these instructions fail the third test. They are a collection of long, complex sentences and words. The writing is dreary and "unreadable". Most readers simply cannot tolerate this. It "confuses" them. Complex subject matter does not have to mean complex writing. In fact, a good writer should strive for the opposite. If the subject is complex, then keep the writing as simple as possible. The reader will have enough trouble just digesting the subject matter. You don't want to swamp him by forcing him to decipher the writing. Researchers have been studying the characteristics of readable writing for about 50 years. They have devised several formulas to evaluate writing; most of these formulas deal with sentence length and word complexity. P C - R E A D Version 2.4 Page 4 PC-READ You holding an evaluation copy of a program called "PC-READ". This program rates the complexity of writing as an average grade level (elementary, high school, college) at which the text could be easily read. For instance, a Reading Level of 9 suggests a 9th grade reading level. To make this more meaningful, a recent story in "The Wall Street Journal" indicated that many executives are most comfortable reading at a 7th grade level. This does not mean that business writing should be "baby-writing" of the "See Bill. See Jane" variety. However, it does suggest that simple, concise writing is much more effective than complex writing. Most successful popular writing grades below a 13 on the READING LEVEL scale. As the level rises, people will find the text more and more difficult to read. Government and business writing often rates a very high Reading Level. This high level suggests that people will have trouble reading and understanding the writing. Complex subjects need not have high Reading Levels. For example, consider "The Wall Street Journal". A prime example of clear and concise coverage of complex subjects, the Journal averages a Reading Level of about 11. (Ironic how our Mr. Hannah appreciates clear writing in his WSJ yet demands complex writing from his employees.) Note that a low Reading Level does not mean a piece of text is "good" writing, only that it is probably easy to read. However, most of what you consider "good" writing probably will not have high Reading Levels. P C - R E A D Version 2.4 Page 5 USING PC-READ PC-READ accepts a text file and grades it on complexity. You have a certain amount of flexibility in how you decide to grade the file. You may grade a chunk from the beginning of the file, or just from selected subsections. You can also print a "floating reading level" alongside a condensed version of your text file! PC-READ does not use the grading formula devised by the Department of Defense; instead, it uses a custom algorithm that better reflects the "real world". PC-READ accepts ASCII text files as well as WordStar files, WordPerfect files, and many other popular word processing program files. The text should contain mostly English sentences. Long tables, such as product descriptions and prices, extracts of computer programs, like COBOL data structures, or frequent sections of dialogue will skew the Reading Level. PC-READ comes on a single-sided DOS 1.1 formatted diskette. The program is not copy-protected. To copy PC-READ, place the program diskette in drive A; place the diskette you'd like to copy to in drive B. From DOS, issue the following command: COPY A:PC-READ.COM B: If you have a hard drive system, then place the PC-READ program diskette in drive A and issue the following command: COPY A:PC-READ.COM C: (assuming that C: is the hard drive) PC-READ is now installed. To execute PC-READ, first make sure that PC-READ.COM is on the default drive. From the DOS prompt, enter: PC-READ P C - R E A D Version 2.4 Page 6 You'll see a title screen introducing PC-READ. Press any key to continue. PC-READ begins by listing the directory of the default drive. If the directory listing is short enough to fit on one screen, PC-READ enters a "ready" state and waits for you to press one of the function keys F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, or F6. Hard disk users may have too many files in their subdirectory to list on one screen. If the directory listing needs more than one screen, you'll be prompted by a message on the bottom of the screen. The message says: "[PgDn] for next page, [PgUp] for previous, [Enter to stop listing" (NOTE: If you have more than 512 files in a subdirectory, PC-READ will terminate with an error message. There's nothing magic about the 512 figure; I had to set a limit somewhere. If this causes a problem, try splitting your large directory into two or more subdirectories.) If you press the PgDn key, the directory listing will scroll to the next available page of file names. If you are already on the last page, nothing will happen. The PgUp key scrolls you to the previous available page of file names. If you are already on the first page, nothing will happen. When you have finished scrolling through the file names, press the Enter key (the Return key). This forces PC-READ into the "ready" state. Only when you are in the "ready" state can you successfully press F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, or F6. FUNCTION KEY ACTION F1 CHANGE LOGGED DRIVE: Press F1, and PC-READ prompts you for a one-letter character denoting the new default (or logged) drive. For example, A, B, or C. After you enter the new drive ID, PC-READ will list the directory of that drive. P C - R E A D Version 2.4 Page 7 F2 DISPLAY READING LEVEL: Press F2 and PC-READ prompts you for the name of a text file. PC-READ will search the current logged drive for this file. If you enter a blank or null file name, PC-READ will return to the ready state. If the file is found, PC-READ will begin to rate the complexity of the writing. PC-READ begins at the front of the text file and continues until it reaches the end of the file OR until it counts 50 sentences. After processing the text file, PC-READ generates a graphic display showing the reading level. Press "Q" to terminate the program; press "N" to process a new file. F3 CHANGE DIRECTORY: Press F3 and PC-Read prompts you for a new subdirectory path. A null response leaves the subdirectory path as it is. If you don't know what a subdirectory path is, don't worry about it -- this option is only for people who use subdirectories. F4 FLOATING READING LEVEL: You need a printer for this option. You're prompted for a file name. PC-READ will load the entire file into memory (if there's enough memory). PC-READ then processes the file. It prints a condensed version of your text file (three or so words every several sentences -- just enough to find where you are) along with a Floating Reading Level. This Floating Level is refigured about every 15 sentences. This option is a handy tool -- it's up to you to get the most out of it. For example, you P C - R E A D Version 2.4 Page 8 can use it to flag "problem" areas in your text file. You could also test whether or not your text is monotonous -- this is likely if your Floating Reading Levels remain about the same through your text file. If this happens, try changing your text so the Floating Reading Level varies up and down. F5 MARK TEXT to PROCESS: This option lets you scan selected subsections of your text file. Use this option with a PRINT-IMAGE ASCII file. Most word processors let you create a print-image of your text on disk -- instead of printing your text on a printer, you can "print" it onto a disk file. You can use option F5 with a non-print image file, but you may have uncertain success. As with option F4, the Mark and Process Text option attempts to load the entire file into memory. It then displays the first "page" of text. You can use the "PgUp" and "PgDn" keys to scroll through your text file. When you've found the beginning point from which you'd like to process, press the F1 key. This will "Mark" the beginning point. Now use the PgUp or PgDn keys to find an ending point. Note that the ending point can actually come before the beginning point -- PC-READ will make the necessary adjustments. Use F1 to mark the ending point. If you press F1 a third time, PC-READ will warn you that you've already defined a beginning and ending point! You may choose to leave them defined as they are, or you can "unmark" them and set a new beginning point. At any time, you can press F3 to return to the main menu. When you're satisfied with your beginning and ending points, press F2 to begin processing. PC-READ will start at the beginning mark and discard the first sentence (since this might be P C - R E A D Version 2.4 Page 9 a sentence fragment). PC-READ will then process text through your ending point. PC-READ will also warn you if you've marked too short a section to process. After processing, you'll see the results on the graphic reading level display. Press "Q" to return to the main menu; "M" returns you to the "Mark and Process" menu where you can mark the beginning and ending points of another section of text. F6 TERMINATE PC-READ: Press F6 to exit the PC-READ program from the ready state. REMEMBER The Reading Level is only a measure of what people consider easy reading. It is only meaningful for normal current-day English business writing. Poetry, songs, dialogue, and foreign or historical writings are completely different matters. The Reading Level doesn't measure whether the writing is good or bad, interesting or dull, enjoyable or irritating. It tries to measure whether or not the writing will tire the reader because of the way the words and sentences are assembled. Writers can use this mechanical measurement as a tool to aid them in analyzing and improving their writing. Their success depends on their writing skills and on how effectively they use this tool. P C - R E A D Version 2.4 Page 10 YOUR EVALUATION COPY Earlier versions of PC-READ were distributed by the "user-supported" concept. If you're not familiar with the user-supported doctrine, then read on. The user-supported distribution concept relies on you to decide whether or not a piece of software has any value. If so, then you're asked to send a small fee to reward the software author. This contrasts with the mainstream method of distribution. Normally, you pay big money for a program that may or may not fit your needs. The catch is you won't know if the program works for you until AFTER you pay for it. There are no guarantees, no extensive try-outs, and no refunds. To top it off, your software purchase might be copy-protected. This makes your software investment awkward to use. Beginning with Version 2.4, PC-READ will no longer be distributed as a user-supported product. (This gives you an idea of how successful user-supported distribution has been!) Instead, these partially-functional evalution copies will be distributed. In fairness to everyone, I will not ask new users to pay for what old users got for free. Therefore, this evaluation version of PC-READ includes all working features found in PC-READ version 2.3. Version 2.4 has two features not found in Version 2.3. They are: Print Floating Reading Level and Mark and Process Text (called by function keys F4 and F5). These two options are not fully implemented in this evaluation copy. Between the fully functional Process Text File option (Function key F2) and the partially functional Print Floating Reading Level and Mark and Process Text options, you should be able to judge whether or not PC-READ Version 2.4 is right for you. If you like what you see, you can receive the full working version by sending $35.00 to: P C - R E A D Version 2.4 Page 11 Wash 'n Ware Software Products P. O. Box 91016-199 Baton Rouge, La. 70821 All orders are processed the day they are received. Site licenses for PC-READ are available for $420.00. These entitle a corporate entity to make and distribute as many copies of PC-READ and all documentation as they need for their internal use. Corporate orders for single copies or site licenses are welcome; just send a Purchase Order number or simply an order on company letterhead and we'll invoice you.