The Fog Index

[Philster401]

Yes not as much now and days but I'm pretty sure that I have seen older books like The Once and Future King had them I think but I'm not exactly sure.

 

[Guy]

I think most of the time actual word choice is not an issue. Why use overly difficult words when you can use everyday language?

That depends on what you're trying to portray.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

I've never heard of authors doing that, and I don't really agree with it. Your job as an author is to tell a story and entertain your readers. Not give them an education. The only time I could imagine something like that happening would be in childrens books where they are attempting to teach kids to read.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Svrtnsse]

I amused myself be putting in some scenes from my wip into the tool.
What I did find is that the scenes from the first two chapters had a higher fog index on average than the scenes in my last chapter. In the first chapter the scenes are between 6 and 10, while in the last chapter the scenes are between 4 and 7.

This matches fairly well with my impression of how I've improved as a writer over the 18+ months I've been working on this story. I guess my language/voice when I started is a bit different to what it's like now.
I like to think I've improved - it feels like I have.

As for the index itself. I wouldn't put too much stock in it for individual texts, but rather as a means of comparing averages from very large samples.

 

[chrispenycate]

My 'Once and future king' omnibus has no explanatory footnotes, so that must have been a special edition - perhaps for schools. But as to 'why' one would use a multisyllabic word when there was a simpler one available, sometimes it's to prevent repetition of a word, sometimes because synonyms are never quite identical in meaning, however similar, even if the difference is only in the emotional response of the author, but quite often it's how the rhythm of a word integrates into the rhythm of an entire sentence. This is almost but not quite poetry, and I for one attempt to make my text sound right, and are paced to their content.

 

[Incanus]

My 'Once and future king' omnibus has no explanatory footnotes, so that must have been a special edition - perhaps for schools. But as to 'why' one would use a multisyllabic word when there was a simpler one available, sometimes it's to prevent repetition of a word, sometimes because synonyms are never quite identical in meaning, however similar, even if the difference is only in the emotional response of the author, but quite often it's how the rhythm of a word integrates into the rhythm of an entire sentence. This is almost but not quite poetry, and I for one attempt to make my text sound right, and are paced to their content.

Well said. I do it for every one of these reasons. While I enjoy a great many books that have been written in a plain, easy-to-read style, I give extra points to stories that employ color, lyrical cadence, varied pacing and structures, interesting words, and also 'normal' words used interestingly. I guess I'm just a little weird, but rather than bogging me down or breaking immersion, I find that these things, when done right, greatly enhances the emerging imagery in my mind, making the story really sing.

 

[skip.knox]

But that's exactly my point, Sidekick Who Is Legendary. Writing clearly is the goal, not writing to a grade level, which is in any case a chimera. I've also had my college students say they had to look up words. Sometimes, they were words I had rather expected them to know.

Which goes to demonstrate the age-old adage: it just goes to show, ya just never know.

 

[skip.knox]

> Why use overly difficult words when you can use everyday language? Reading a word you don't know pulls you out of your reading and breaks up the flow, it would be a disservice to your reader.

I disagree. I clearly remember reading H.G. Wells at the tender age of fourteen or thereabouts. Plenty of words I did not recognize. This was in the 1960s, so there was no cell phone handy with which to look up a word. Sometimes I was able to figure out the word from context, other times it remained a mystery. Most notably I remember working my way through The Island of Dr Moreau without ever once understanding what the hell the word 'vivisection' meant. But I encountered it enough that I took the time to look it up, after I'd finished the story. Ohhhhh!

But the story remains clear (dare I say vivid) in my mind to this day, and I should hate to think old Herbert George would have written 'down to my level'. The very thought is disgusting. On the contrary, his prose inspired me, for it showed me there was more to language than the everyday.

Never, ever, ever -- and by this I mean never, ever -- underestimate your audience. I don't care how old they are.