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<blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5896555" data-attributes="member: 54877">Most people don't recognize the difference, because they haven't bothered to learn.&nbsp; It's not all that useful of a skill, unless you write.&nbsp; However, most people can sense the difference between, say, newspaper writing and something a bit more or less engaging.&nbsp; For example, very few people tolerate fiction written at an 8th grade level.&nbsp; Heck, most 8th graders can't even stand it.&nbsp; (That would be around age 14 for you folks not in the USA.)&nbsp; &nbsp;Furthermore, it is perfectly possible to write &quot;convoluted&quot; material that says nothing in particular, and not because of the grade level.&nbsp; Universities are full of it, as are many marketing pamphlets.&nbsp; &nbsp;The valuable skill is consciously choosing the grade level for your audience and writing in that.&nbsp; Writing at a higher grade level conveys nuance.&nbsp; With a lot of work, you could convey this nuance in a lower grade level, but it will take a lot of text.&nbsp; &nbsp;Do you think anyone here had trouble following what I just wrote? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Crazy Jerome, post: 5896555, member: 54877"] Most people don't recognize the difference, because they haven't bothered to learn. It's not all that useful of a skill, unless you write. However, most people can [B]sense[/B] the difference between, say, newspaper writing and something a bit more or less engaging. For example, very few people tolerate fiction written at an 8th grade level. Heck, most 8th graders can't even stand it. (That would be around age 14 for you folks not in the USA.) Furthermore, it is perfectly possible to write "convoluted" material that says nothing in particular, and not because of the grade level. Universities are full of it, as are many marketing pamphlets. The valuable skill is consciously choosing the grade level for your audience and writing in that. Writing at a higher grade level conveys nuance. With a lot of work, you could convey this nuance in a lower grade level, but it will take a lot of text. Do you think anyone here had trouble following what I just wrote? ;) [/QUOTE]

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