Is the Accuracy of Microsoft Word in Question?
The Legal Writing Prof Blog has this post about a new article: Readability Studies: How Technocentrism Can Compromise Research an [sic] Legal Determinations, 26 Quinnipiac Law Review 147 (2007).
According to the post, it’s about readability formulas, and the accuracy of the formulas provided in Microsoft Word:
“If Microsoft’s readability program is flawed, however, it compromises the results of the many researchers who have relied on it.”
We don’t question the accuracy of some things. If Word says a document contains 600 words, then that’s what it contains, right? And it’s easy enough to check.
But what about the accuracy of some other features of Word? If you’re familiar with its spelling- and grammar-check feature, you must know it’s not always spot on. It often misses obvious errors, and it often reports problems that don’t exist.
What about Word’s readability feature? Is it accurate?
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How often do you check a document’s readability scores? Do you ever make changes to a document to affect those scores?
If you’re writing a client alert or an article for one your firm’s newsletters, you certainly should.
If you want people to read what you’ve written, keep an eye on readability, especially the introduction to the article.
Why? Because readers often decide not to read past the first paragraph if that one’s hard to read.
And there’s not much sense in writing articles that people aren’t going to read.
