{"id":19693,"date":"2018-11-29T08:05:25","date_gmt":"2018-11-29T12:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/?page_id=19693"},"modified":"2024-01-01T08:50:45","modified_gmt":"2024-01-01T12:50:45","slug":"quotes-on-how-to-measure-readability","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/writing-tips\/what-is-readability\/how-to-improve-readability\/quotes-on-how-to-measure-readability\/","title":{"rendered":"Quotes on how to measure readability"},"content":{"rendered":"

What writers & others say<\/h2>\n

\"Quotes

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“A writer’s style should not place obstacles between his ideas and the minds of his readers.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Steve Allen, founder of “The Tonight Show”<\/h6>\n
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“Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret of style.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Matthew Arnold, British poet and cultural critic<\/h6>\n
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“I never study style; all that I do is try to get the subject as clear as I can in my own head, and express it in the commonest language which occurs to me.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Charles Darwin, author of The Origin of the Species<\/em><\/h6>\n
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“Clarity is the most serious communication problem in business.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Ron Dulek, author of The Elements of Business Writing<\/em><\/h6>\n
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\u201cAny fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius \u2014 and a lot of courage \u2014 to move in the opposite direction.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist who developed the theory of relativity<\/h6>\n
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\u201cI guess I should warn you, if I turn out to be particularly clear, you\u2019ve probably misunderstood what I\u2019ve said.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve chairman, at a meeting of the Economic Club of New York<\/h6>\n
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“Plain language does not mean baby talk or dumbing down the language. It means clear and effective communication.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Joseph Kimble, chair of the Thomas M. Cooley Law School’s Research & Writing Department<\/h6>\n
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“Write for the expert, but write so the non-expert can understand.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Bernard Kilgore, celebrated Wall Street Journal<\/em> editor<\/h6>\n
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“The truth is that the best communicators are and have always been the clearest communicators \u2014 from Winston Churchill to Albert Einstein.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Paula LaRocque, author of Championship Writing<\/em><\/h6>\n
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“Fuzzy writing always<\/em> reveals fuzzy thinking.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Paula LaRocque, author of Championship Writing<\/em><\/h6>\n
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“I think of (convoluted) prose as ‘octopus writing’ because, to an octopus, the function of ink is not to reveal but to obscure.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Paula LaRocque, author of Championship Writing<\/em><\/h6>\n
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“The oldest and best advice in the business is: The tougher it is to tell, the slower and simpler you tell it.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Bob Levey, Washington Post<\/em> columnist<\/h6>\n
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“To write simply is as difficult as to be good.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 W. Somerset Maugham, English playwright, novelist and short story writer<\/h6>\n
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“Anything is better than not to write clearly. There is nothing to be said against lucidity, and against simplicity only the possibility of dryness. This is a risk well worth taking when you reflect how much better it is to be bald than to wear a curly wig.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 W. Somerset Maugham, English playwright, novelist and short story writer<\/h6>\n
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Readability: \u201cthe degree to which a given class of people find certain reading matter compelling and comprehensible.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 G. Harry McLaughlin, creator of the SMOG readability formula<\/h6>\n
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“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Charles Mingus, jazz musician<\/h6>\n
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\u201cLess is more. Don\u2019t get fancy, don\u2019t overdo anything. Simplicity and power are not mutually exclusive. They are often one and the same.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Dan Pallotta, president of Springboard, in the Harvard Business Review<\/em><\/h6>\n
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“The most valued quality of the language of journalism is clarity, and its most desired effect is to be understood.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Roy Peter Clark, Poynter Institute senior scholar<\/h6>\n
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\u201cPut it before them briefly so they will read it,
\nclearly so they will appreciate it,
\npicturesquely so they will remember it
\nand, above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Joseph Pulitzer, publisher of the St. Louis Post Dispatch<\/em> and the New York World<\/em><\/h6>\n
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\u201cI love words but I don\u2019t like strange ones. You don\u2019t understand them and they don\u2019t understand you. Old words is like old friends, you know \u2019em the minute you see \u2019em.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Will Rogers, American humorist and entertainer<\/h6>\n
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\u201cAn honest tale speeds best being plainly told.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 William Shakespeare<\/h6>\n
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\u201cThe problem with communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics<\/h6>\n
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“I see only one rule: to be clear. If I am not clear, then my entire world crumbles into nothing.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Stendhal, French novelist<\/h6>\n
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\u201cI notice that you use plain, simple language, short words, and brief sentences. That is the way to write English \u2014 it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; and don\u2019t let the fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014Mark Twain, American wit, in a letter to a 12-year-old boy<\/h6>\n
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“I write as straight as I can, just as I walk as straight as I can, because that is the best way to get there.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 H. G. Wells, English novelist and historian<\/h6>\n
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“The simpler you say it, the more eloquent it is.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 August Wilson, American playwright<\/h6>\n
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“What can be said at all can be said clearly.”<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Ludwig Wittgenstein, philosopher<\/h6>\n
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\u201cLack of clarity is the number-one time-waster.\u201d<\/h5>\n
\u2014 Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect, interior designer, writer and educator<\/h6>\n
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