Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!lll-lcc!styx!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!OZ.AI.MIT.EDU!MINSKY From: MINSKY@OZ.AI.MIT.EDU Newsgroups: comp.ai.digest Subject: AIList Digest V5 #108 Message-ID: Date: Sun, 3-May-87 23:35:00 EDT Article-I.D.: MIT-OZ.MINSKY.12299573623.BABYL Posted: Sun May 3 23:35:00 1987 Date-Received: Thu, 7-May-87 06:48:12 EDT References: Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Distribution: world Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 17 Approved: ailist@stripe.sri.com I agree with Todd, Ogasawara: one should not criticise to extremes. I found RightWriter useful and suggestive. It was helpful in detecting obnoxious passive constructions and excessively long sentences. In final editing of "The Society of Mind" I used spelling checkers to notify me of unfamiliar words, and I often replaced them by more familiar ones. I also used it to establish a "gradient". The early chapters are written at a "grade level" of about 8.6 and the book ends up with grade levels more like 13.2 - using RightWriter's quaint scale. Naturally the program makes lots of errors, but they are instantly obvious and easily ignored. I imposed a "style gradient" upon "The Society of Mind" because I wanted its beginning to be accessible to non-specialists. I cheerfully assumed that any reader who gets to the end will by then have become a specialist.