"Rod Speed" writes:

Arfa Daily wrote
Rod Speed wrote
whisky-dave wrote
Dave Liquorice wrote
Mark wrote

I agree there are some sites that are trustworthy.
However, take NHS direct, for example. It is so dumbed
down and simplified it's pretty much useless IMHO.

By heck it is. I don't look at it very often, if at all, but some
one posted a link elsewhere. That page was awful, any word
that was even vaugely "difficult" had a simple explanation
in brackets after it. Things like "incision (small cut)". Made
reading the information very much harder that it should be.

Makes you wonder why they use the word
incison rather than small cut, any ideas ?

They stupidly believe it reads better.

Same reason cops use fancy words when giving evidence in court.

This a web page FFS! Link the "difficult" words to a glossary
entry or is clicking a word to "difficult" as well? If so have a
the text that would be in the brackets appear in a float over
box. Don't disrupt the flow of the text.

Maybe it's because difernt browswers
show things in slightly differtn ways.

And it isnt obvious to everyone that they can get that effect
with words they arent sure of. Makes no sense to use a word
like incision with stuff that's sposed to be read by the general
public on a site like that.

I'm actually having a real problem with the concept that the world
is now so dumb as to have difficulty with a word like "incision" ...

I'm not convinced that there weren't always some that ignorant.

It wasn't that long ago that some kids managed to
leave school without being able to read. You don't
see that much anymore and those might now be
reading sites like that at times tho not very often IMO.

To slightly change the subject, ISTM that with all these yobs using
their mobiles to text each other, in future nearly everyone is going to
be able to read and write.
There might be some question about the language(s) which will evolve
(Txtish? Txtese?), but they will be able to communicate in writing.


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J.R.R. Tolkien:- @ O n e t e l . c o m
All that is gold does not glister / Not all who wander are lost