First we have “Is Google Making us stupid?” which is in essences saying that the internet has turned us into skimmers, unable to read deeply. Then we have The Yahoo Style Guide telling us that when we write on the Web, we need to keep it at a 6th or 8th grade reading level. I have a problem with both of these concepts. My problem with the Google article, I have already discusses. however, I do believe that our Yahoo book is helping to perpetuate this myth. In my opinion an author may have a target audience in mind but does not always write for the masses , as Yahoo is advising Web writers to do. If your audience is children, then by all means, keep it at a level they will understand, if you audience is adult Sci-Fi readers, then you write for them. Not everyone is going to understand or even enjoy Shakespeare, but we don’t rewrite all his works so that everyone can easily understand it.
If you are writing something that is intended for everyone, then I agree that it should be kept simple, but at the same time, if your target audience is the science community, then I don’t believe this standard should be applied. I think there are conflicting ideas in the Yahoo book about targeting you audience and at the same time writing for the masses. There are many Web sites out in cyber-space that I have come across that had jargon I didn’t understand. I didn’t have a problem with this because I was not the writers target audience, just like I have come across print writing that I didn’t understand. I just think that if we hold on to the theory that we must do everything differently when writing for the Web than when writing for print, we are agreeing with the “Google” article.
I do agree that some things should be different, things like font size, because it can be physically harder to read on a screen than to read a print book.
I just think that writing standards should be based on our target audience, not the masses (unless of course your target audience is the masses).
kimberlyfarrier 