As I’ve mentioned in prior posts, I’m trying to get my head around plain language as a way to not only support adults struggling with low literacy but also as a tool to support accessibility. I wasn’t able to attend today’s session by Literacy Works on Plain Language 101, but Jeff sent me a link to the Up-Goer Five Text Editor by Theo Sanderson (@theosanderson on Twitter) that pushes you to “explain a hard idea using only the 1,000 most used words“.
Using the Up-Goer Six Text Editor that color codes words to show how common they are, I was able to see what it would take to re-write the above paragraph using only the 1,000 most used words. I then made an attempt using the Up-Goer Five Text Editor that resulted in the following:
“As I’ve mentioned, I’m trying to get my head around writing more simply to help people struggling to read, as well as others. I wasn’t able to join today’s class [by Literacy Works] on it, but [Jeff] told me about the [Up-Goer Five Text Editor] that pushes you to ‘explain a hard idea using only the 1,000 most used words'”.
That was NOT EASY! The only non-permitted words I used (Literacy, Jeff, Text, and Editor) were names (or part of names), so I feel that was a reasonable compromise. Give it a try!
p.s. This featured image is a mural painted by @tada_artists in Tampa in October of 2018.