There is also the idea that the lead should be written for a more general audience than the rest of the article. I don't know if our cancer articles follow that style, but I find that in many articles in subjects where I'm an ignoramus I can grasp the lead but get lost if I try to finish the page.
If the study was analyzing whole Wikipedia articles they won't have picked up on that. WSC On 17 September 2011 13:48, Fred Bauder <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Sep 16, 2011 6:35 PM, "Fred Bauder" <[email protected]> wrote: > >> It is difficult to balance the needs of the general public, which reads > >> more at a 5th grade level than a 9th grade level, with the need to > >> present comprehensive information that would be of use to an > >> oncologist. > >> > >> If we addressed this problem in a systemic way we would present > >> alternate > >> articles at differing levels of comprehensiveness and readability. > >> > >> Perhaps in the future. > > > > If most people that have completed the ninth grade can't read at the > > ninth > > grade level, you need to recalibrate your scale... Either that, or give > > up > > on this nonsense that readability can be determined by word and sentence > > length. It has far more to do with how engaging it is and how much prior > > knowledge it assumes than how long the sentences are. > > > > If people want something that doesn't require much language skill, we do > > have Simple English Wikipedia. I haven't visited it in a while, so I'm > > not > > sure how good it is these days. > > > > It doesn't have much detailed information on cancer. > > Simple English serves those learning English who have a limited > vocabulary, not the general English speaking public, who are literate but > not skilled readers. Reaching that population, the masses, if you will, > requires specialized writing and editorial skills. Governmental and > medical organizations use those skills while crafting public information > documents. We could also learn and apply those skills in an appropriate > format. > > Fred > > > _______________________________________________ > WikiEN-l mailing list > [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l > _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
