How is it possible that roughly 50% of Americans can’t read above a 6th grade level and how are 21% just flat out illiterate?
How is it possible that roughly 50% of Americans can’t read above a 6th grade level and how are 21% just flat out illiterate?
Question above is pretty blunt but was doing a study for a college course and came across that stat. How is that possible? My high school sucked but I was well equipped even with that sub standard level of education for college. Obviously income is a thing but to think 1 out of 5 American adults is categorized as illiterate is…astounding. Now poor media literacy I get, but not this. Edit: this was from a department of education report from 2022. Just incase people are curious where that comes from. It does also specify as literate in English so maybe not as grim as I thought.
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Part of the reason so many can’t read above a 6th grade level is that they are always written to on that level. Anything written for any commercial purpose is always written at a low level so any idiot can understand the menu / read the packaging / consume the magazine ad / whatever. Commercial writers write for the lowest common denominator and to an extent, news media do as well.
So a 6th grade reading level is really all you need to get by. Unless you actually read books or opt for The Economist or something else that doesn’t assume you’re a moron, 6th grade level is all you’re gonna see.
There’s some utility in this. Simpler language is also lowest-common denominator for second-language-speakers, of which we have many. Another reason to use it.
I never really considered the part ESL individuals play into this phenomenon. It makes sense that a nation of immigrants would have a large population who isn't up to speed with English
I'm not sure why this post has so many downvotes, because this is accurate. I just started working somewhere that utilizes a lot of technical writing and there are style guides to make sure your writing is in its simplest and clearest form. Text is rated on the Gunning fog index, which uses words per sentence and syllables to calculate readability. Writing for the public is intended to be at an 8 or lower, meaning 8th grade readability or lower. I think many people never really learned to read at higher than an 8th grade level, and the rest get used to never reading higher in their daily lives.
It's a duplicate comment. Happens a lot I notice, wonder if it's a bug with Lemmy or certain apps?
It's a self-reinforcing cycle. If you write directions at too high a level, people don't read them and call support instead so someone can explain the directions with more and smaller words. So if you're writing the directions and taking support calls, you have an incentive to try to write your directions at a low reading level to reduce your future support burden. (That doesn't make you any good at it.) Which, if your hypothesis is correct, hurts the readers' ability to read complex sentences a little bit in exchange for reducing your support burden by a lot.