Aquestion on your April Ballot is nearly impossible to read unless you’re in 28th Grade!
The one referendum question on Wisconsin’s Spring Ballot next month was put through Word’s Readability Statistics tool by The COMM Voice Editorial Staff. ‘Word rated this question virtually impossible to read and, obviously, understand! It’ll be difficult for most voters to intelligently choose Yes, or No – no matter which side they’re on! (AND, most voters will no doubt need extra time to try to read and comprehend this bureaucratic Mumbo Jumbo; there will be delays at the polls.)
Reading Score Screen Shot
According to Word’s Readability Statistics, the 64-word referendum question rated only a 9.6 on the Reading Ease scale; it barely even registered! The best Reading Ease score any piece of prose can get is 100.
Attempting to assign an appropriate Grade Level to this difficult question, Word gave it a 27.8! WOW… Do you know anyone in 28th grade? Who can intelligently vote on that?
SO, YAY or NAY?
Read this question and decide how you’ll vote: “Shall Section 9m of Article 1 of the constitution, which gives certain rights to crime victims, be amended to give crime victims additional rights, to require that the rights of crime victims be protected with equal force to the protections afforded the accused while leaving the federal constitutional rights of the accused intact, and to allow crime victims to enforce their rights in court?”
COMM students in MEdia Workshop are required to run all their work and writings through Word’s Readability Statistics tool. They use it as a handy guide to help make sure their content is easy to read – and understand – for readers of The COMM Voice – even those readers in 28th Grade!
Someday, some of UWGB’s COMM students will no doubt get jobs in Government or Law. Obviously, those industries need a LOT of our help!
WHAT DO U THINK? COMMENT BELOW, PLEASE 🙂
I M!