Comments on: Defrag scareware https://dfarq.homeip.net/defrag-scareware/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=defrag-scareware David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more Thu, 06 Jan 2011 06:05:41 +0000 hourly 1 By: Don Armstrong https://dfarq.homeip.net/defrag-scareware/#comment-6269 Thu, 06 Jan 2011 06:05:41 +0000 https://dfarq.homeip.net/?p=2867#comment-6269 The readability analysis in MS-Word is useful and usable, despite the source. If I optimise the last three lines it reports, readability gets a lot better. Of course, that may not be what is needed. Academic writing is often downgraded if it’s simple, forceful, and clear. Rewards are based on how much effort it takes to extract the message from the medium. If you cut down passive-voice sentences, increase the Flesch Reading Ease index, and lower the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (maybe to high-school grade seven or eight), possibly treating your treatise a paragraph at a time, then the message hits harder and more crisply.

The above paragraph was an example of one difficult to optimise though, although I improved it.

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