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How the linguistic standards of the SOTU have declined over time

Using the Flesch-Kincaid readability test the Guardian has tracked the reading level of every state of the union

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The Flesch Kincaid test is bogus, but Obama is still a moron of epic proportions.

sauldalinsky on February 13, 2013 at 1:35 PM

The Flesch Kincaid test is bogus, but Obama is still a moron of epic proportions.

sauldalinsky on February 13, 2013 at 1:35 PM

I agree. I never understood how long rambling sentences that may or may not make any sense are inherently indicative of a higher education level than a short, succinct sentence that conveys everything that you want it to. It is much easier to ramble aimlessly than it is to effectively convey information.

besser tot als rot on February 13, 2013 at 1:42 PM

Wow, 27,000 words from Teddy Roosevelt! I bet most of them were interesting too.

bobs1196 on February 13, 2013 at 1:44 PM

The LA Times tells the true story of how the populace has dumbed down and how the media are helping.

Also, the ‘smartest’ president ever, the ‘man of the world, who doesn’t speak a foreign language, and who believes that Austrian is actually a language, is lionized and Rubio is laughed at for sipping water.

The leftists are the biggest rats in the Earht’ latrines. May something very bad get over them. They love their voters to remain stupid, in modern day plantations, harlots on the dole. In the meanwhile they, the Looters, live like kings and Marie Antoinettes.

May the devil strike them all.

Schadenfreude on February 13, 2013 at 1:46 PM

For some reason my post above makes me think of that buffoon George RR Martin. (But not Steven Erikson – who is the antithesis of George RR Martin.)

besser tot als rot on February 13, 2013 at 1:47 PM

“Primative”

forest on February 13, 2013 at 1:48 PM

The thing about this scale is that it’s essentially meaningless as far as what matters most: communication. Ranking at a higher reading level does not automatically make a speech better, it just means it is aimed at a smaller chunk of the overall populace. A lower reading level, on the other hand, means a speech can be understood by more people, which as far as getting your message out at something like the State of the Union is not necessarily a bad thing. I don’t think the scale takes into account other details that might affect the presentation (such as speaking style, vocal timbre, and so on), which also makes it useless for comparing modern presidents with those in the past. If George Washington knew he would be speaking on television to 300 million people, who’s to say he would have written exactly what he did? This is mildly interesting for purposes of comparison, but conveys no useful information about the efficacy of any presidential speech relative to any other.

WesternActor on February 13, 2013 at 1:49 PM

They should measure all the lies.

Muenchhausen would have a ball.

Schadenfreude on February 13, 2013 at 1:53 PM

Here is where this destruction of eloquence direction ends up.

The Presidents SOTU

Bulletchaser on February 13, 2013 at 2:14 PM

It’s hard to get above a second-grade score when half of your speech consists of I, me, my, and mine. Kudos on your average score of 9.2, Mr. Obama!

steebo77 on February 13, 2013 at 3:11 PM

The thing about this scale is that it’s essentially meaningless as far as what matters most: communication. Ranking at a higher reading level does not automatically make a speech better, it just means it is aimed at a smaller chunk of the overall populace.

Alternately what is demonstrated is that the general level of education in society has declined to the point that most people cannot understand language that would have been comprehensible to a farmer in the early 19th century.

theblackcommenter on February 13, 2013 at 3:33 PM