Comments on: Bizarre But True: GWB Writes at a Higher Level Than Thomas Jefferson … An Exposé of the Writing Levels of U.S. Presidents http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/02/10/bizarre-but-true-gwb-writes-at-a-higher-level-than-thomas-jefferson-%e2%80%a6-an-expose-of-the-writing-levels-of-us-presidents/ Janice Harayda Reviews Fiction, Nonfiction and Poetry for Adults and Children Thu, 16 May 2013 19:28:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/02/10/bizarre-but-true-gwb-writes-at-a-higher-level-than-thomas-jefferson-%e2%80%a6-an-expose-of-the-writing-levels-of-us-presidents/#comment-7179 Tue, 27 Jan 2009 18:32:48 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/02/10/bizarre-but-true-gwb-writes-at-a-higher-level-than-thomas-jefferson-%e2%80%a6-an-expose-of-the-writing-levels-of-us-presidents/#comment-7179 A thousand thanks for the tip. I am a journalist, not a teacher or linguist, so I don’t know all of the good resources that are out there. Your link will be very helpful to me.

]]> By: Carlja9 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/02/10/bizarre-but-true-gwb-writes-at-a-higher-level-than-thomas-jefferson-%e2%80%a6-an-expose-of-the-writing-levels-of-us-presidents/#comment-7178 Tue, 27 Jan 2009 18:26:31 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/02/10/bizarre-but-true-gwb-writes-at-a-higher-level-than-thomas-jefferson-%e2%80%a6-an-expose-of-the-writing-levels-of-us-presidents/#comment-7178 Flesch Kincaid isn’t a very reliable text analyzer since it uses sentence length/syntax but ignores vocabulary… I’d be interested to see how they compare when you use this free Dale-Chall analyzer: http://www.interventioncentral.org/htmdocs/tools/okapi/okapi.php

]]> By: Wandering Critic http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/02/10/bizarre-but-true-gwb-writes-at-a-higher-level-than-thomas-jefferson-%e2%80%a6-an-expose-of-the-writing-levels-of-us-presidents/#comment-6713 Sat, 23 Aug 2008 17:53:11 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/02/10/bizarre-but-true-gwb-writes-at-a-higher-level-than-thomas-jefferson-%e2%80%a6-an-expose-of-the-writing-levels-of-us-presidents/#comment-6713 First, a letter to a friend is not, and cannot be compared with any validity to, a work written for publication. Do we write our IM’s at the same reading level we write our blog posts at?

Second, the person who said “Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream” does not write at a 10th-grade level. His ghostwriters do, just as his (no doubt frustrated) speechwriters do. Kennedy didn’t write “Profiles in Courage”; Ted Sorenson did. Reagan didn’t write “An American Life”; Robert Lindsey did. Ford’s ghostwriter was James Humes. Will North may have ghosted Clinton’s “My Life”. On a guess, I’d say Carter writes his own books (they have all the excitement of his presidency) and it’s known that Eisenhower actually did write “Crusade in Europe”. Those two, plus the Gettysburg Address, are the only ones which actually demonstrate the respective presidents’ writing levels at all (you can’t compare a casual letter to a scholarly book).

Instead of these joint press conferences they call “debates” nowadays why not put each candidate in a sound-proof, cell-phone-proof room with a topic, a typewriter, and a time limit, and see what they write? Now that would be worth something.

]]> By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/02/10/bizarre-but-true-gwb-writes-at-a-higher-level-than-thomas-jefferson-%e2%80%a6-an-expose-of-the-writing-levels-of-us-presidents/#comment-108 Sun, 11 Feb 2007 02:35:49 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/02/10/bizarre-but-true-gwb-writes-at-a-higher-level-than-thomas-jefferson-%e2%80%a6-an-expose-of-the-writing-levels-of-us-presidents/#comment-108 bookbabie — I was surprised about Jefferson, too. It made more sense to me that he got a Grade 12 for the Declaration of Independence (if you give him credit for the whole thing). You could be right that he was “dumbing down” his manner a little for Abigail. It’s also possible that because she was a friend, Jefferson was writing to her in the relaxed and conversational tone that all of us tend to use when we’re writing to people we like, male or female. Something similar might explain why Clinton’s grade level was lower than Bush’s. Clinton writes in a very natural way, as though his readers were his friends, while Bush tends to be stuffier in print… and that makes his writing style “older,” if that makes any sense.

frecklescassie — Don’t you sympathize with some of Bush’s ghostwriters? They may give him great material. And then he’ll come out with lines like his famous, “I know how hard it is to put food on your family.”

A thousand thanks to you both for your comments. So many people are away this weekend that I almost didn’t post this …

]]> By: frecklescassie http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/02/10/bizarre-but-true-gwb-writes-at-a-higher-level-than-thomas-jefferson-%e2%80%a6-an-expose-of-the-writing-levels-of-us-presidents/#comment-107 Sun, 11 Feb 2007 02:07:52 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/02/10/bizarre-but-true-gwb-writes-at-a-higher-level-than-thomas-jefferson-%e2%80%a6-an-expose-of-the-writing-levels-of-us-presidents/#comment-107 Except that Bush had a ghost writer and the founding fathers didn’t!

]]> By: bookbabie http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/02/10/bizarre-but-true-gwb-writes-at-a-higher-level-than-thomas-jefferson-%e2%80%a6-an-expose-of-the-writing-levels-of-us-presidents/#comment-106 Sun, 11 Feb 2007 01:42:10 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/02/10/bizarre-but-true-gwb-writes-at-a-higher-level-than-thomas-jefferson-%e2%80%a6-an-expose-of-the-writing-levels-of-us-presidents/#comment-106 Interesting piece Janet. I’m surprised Jefferson came out so low on the letter, maybe he thought since he was writing to a woman he needed to keep it simple;-)I also wonder why Bush came out ahead of Clinton, wouldn’t have guessed that. You have a nice blog and website!

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