On 09/17/11 5:48 AM, Fred Bauder 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. > I look at Simple more broadly to include adult native English speakers with generally poor reading skills for whatever reason. Depending on how you define "literate" your comment could be self-contradictory.
I just looked at the first sentence of [[en:Cancer]] which reads: > *Cancer* /ˈkænsər/ > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:IPA_for_English>(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:En-us-cancer.ogg> > > listen > <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/En-us-cancer.ogg>) > (medical term: malignant <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malignancy> > neoplasm <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoplasm>) is a large, > heterogeneous class of diseases <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disease> > in which a group of cells > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_%28biology%29> display uncontrolled > growth, invasion that intrudes upon and destroys adjacent tissues, and > often metastasizes <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metastasis>, wherein > the tumor cells spread to other locations in the body via the > lymphatic system <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lymph> or through the > bloodstream <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood>. and the first few sentences of [[simple:Cancer]] which read: > *Cancer* is a class of diseases > <http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disease> or disorders. It is when > the body has no control over cells that begin to split. In cancer > <http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_%28disambiguation%29>, body > cells copy their contents. They then make new cells with these copies. > These cells are able to go into other tissues > <http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_tissue>. They go into > other tissues by growing into them. They can also go into other > tissues by putting themselves into far away places by metastasis > <http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metastasis>. I don't find either satisfactory. Both have grammatical problems. I had to pause to determine how "invasion" related to the beginning, and after figuring that out came to the conclusion that "metastasizes" should really have been a noun. In the Simple version "is when..." is an incorrect introduction of an adverb clause. Addressing an audience with limited language skills is no excuse for our own bad grammar. I don't know what is intended by "body cells copy their contents." A few individual words need further explanation, or, at least, links. Both of these need serious help. Ray _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
