The Daily Mole thinks Star Tribune columnist Katherine Kersten needs professional help.
So editor Steve Perry first ran a recent Kersten column through Juicy Studios’ readability tester (her writing was judged to be on a sixth-grade reading level) and then sent it to a high school English teacher in Alaska, asking her to “assign a letter grade to it, and write a summary feedback paragraph.” Said teacher wasn’t told Kersten is a professional writer, nor does she have knowledge of the columnist’s work. Her critique begins, “Your sentence structure is fine, your paragraphing works, but your argument, frankly, reeks of oversimplified blather.”













4 Comments »
Comment posted November 29, 2007 @ 6:47 pm
A good friend of mine Ran Perry’s piece through the same paces:
“So we selected one of his recent pieces, a November 29th post berating (yawn) Katherine Kerstin (again), and did two things: First, we ran the post through Juicy Studios’ readability tester to see what grade level the composition attained: 5th grade.”
Comment posted November 29, 2007 @ 6:52 pm
Perhaps in light of the results, in the future Perry might think twice before he deigns himself in any position to question the work of an upper classman (or woman).
Comment posted November 29, 2007 @ 12:47 pm
A good friend of mine Ran Perry's piece through the same paces:
“So we selected one of his recent pieces, a November 29th post berating (yawn) Katherine Kerstin (again), and did two things: First, we ran the post through Juicy Studios' readability tester to see what grade level the composition attained: 5th grade.”
Comment posted November 29, 2007 @ 12:52 pm
Perhaps in light of the results, in the future Perry might think twice before he deigns himself in any position to question the work of an upper classman (or woman).
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