Comments on: Writing For Children

By: Carolyn Cordon

Carolyn Cordon — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:31:54 +0000

I love ms Fleish Kincaid – it picks up lots of errors and it is useful to get you to think about your audience. My husband works in the government, and he used to have lots of trouble with passive language – I told him direct was better, and he should avoid passive language, but it took Fleish Kincaid to convince him.

At least I could say ‘I told you so!’.

By: Szabi

Szabi — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 15:51:56 +0000

Thanks for the advices. Spike I will check out the PDF.

By: Steven

Steven — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 12:38:56 +0000

You have to treat MS’s spell-check like that of any proofreader: it’s not perfect. You have to be aware of its flaws. I’ve never been big on the grammar checker. I’m sure mistakes creep in from time-to-time, but I imagine you would have to work pretty hard to find one that’s not debatable. The place where MS fails the most is checking for wrong words. This is fine by me since I don’t make those mistakes. I do, however, make plenty of spelling mistakes. As I make them, though, I try to learn the correct spelling – but from time to time they still slip in. My current notes on Native Inuit Tales are a prime example of where the dictionary fails.

By: spikethelobster

spikethelobster — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 11:35:51 +0000

Szabi: For important posts or articles, I do tend to go through a whole sequence of things (have a look at the “How To Write Articles” PDF in the Free Stuff here). If it’s less important, I just re-read. One little tip is to walk away: I’ve found this makes a HUGE difference to the number of errors I catch. Walk away, do something else that stops you thinking about the writing, then come back later. Works for me, anyway!

Steven: I’d forgotten that little doodad inWord – thanks for that! Might’ve saved me a lot of hassle, though I never really trust built-in MS stuff (ever since the spelling and grammar checkers failed me dismally).

By: Steven

Steven — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 10:54:29 +0000

Fleish Kincaid is a handy little thing that you’ve got on MS Word. It’s basically a calculator that determines what reading level your writing has achieved. The basic rule of thumb is the following:

If you’re writing for common adults, aim for grade 8.
If you’re writing for an academic, aim as high as you can go.
For children, avoid compound complex sentences like the plague. If you’re aiming for educational material, then pick some words that you want them to learn (such as my recent story “The Three Space Brothers”), and make sure you repeat them throughout the story and that you consistently use them.

By: Szabi

Szabi — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 21:37:26 +0000

Good post Spike. For me it’s the grammar what needs to be taken extra care of. I just came across the same topic during Probloggers “31 day” and as I am not a native English speaker really need to take care of it before posting on my blog. So far I have not worked out my “checking system”. What is yours? Do you ask someone to read your articles before posting them? Do you read them aloud for yourself? Any advice?