Avg. reading level
21.6 (1809-to-1816)
Avg. reading level
8.6 (1989-to-1992)
Thanks to Kristan Crawford for finding this link from The Guardian UK about the linguistic standard of the presidential addresses has declining. The State of our State of the Union is apparently much dumber. Using the Flesch-Kincaid readability test the Guardian has tracked the reading level of every state of the union.
From the high average reading level (21.6) of addresses given by James Madison to the lowest average reading level, George Herbert Walker Bush (8.6) some interesting analysis here .
However, while maybe lacking high linguistic level, the White House boasted last night's speech as having never before seen enhancements, including charts, graphs and interactive discussions with policy administrators.
Below is a word cloud from last night's SOTU address:
4 comments:
It’s interesting to think how even with all of our technology, and advances, and overall knowledge, America still isn't any smarter. The national average ACT is around a 20 and that is pretty low. That’s one theory as to why the speech is lower on the scale due to the "dumbing down", but another theory could be content. Back in, say, Washington's time, the speech was more of a public display ceremony than anything else. All they had to do was pretty much say a few things, but then beef up the speech to make it sound important. Today it's all about the content so grandiose vocabulary is not needed because the current situation the US is in demands a plan, and not just a grand ritual.
I think that another reason the State of the Union addresses of today are simpler than those of the past is because the audience of the State of the Union address has changed. Now more than ever (because of accessibility of media), the address must be understandable by everyone in America. I don't think it's accurate to say America is getting dumber because the State of the Union uses less big vocabulary. Rather, it shows that more people, even those who aren't as educated, are aware and are listening to what is going on with politics and government. Speeches are less convoluted because the audience is from a wider base.
It also may be that many of those early SOTU addresses were penned in letters to Congress, rather than in person.
From Robert Longley on About.com:
Jefferson puts it in writing
"Finding the whole process of a speech to a joint session of Congress a little too "kingly," Thomas Jefferson chose to carry out his constitutional duty in 1801 by sending details of his national priorities in separate, written notes to the House and Senate. Finding the written report a great idea, Jefferson's successors in the White House followed suit and it would be 112 years before a president again spoke the State of the Union Address.
Wilson sets the modern tradition
In a controversial move at the time, President Woodrow Wilson revived the practice of spoken delivery of the State of the Union Address to a joint session of Congress in 1913.
The speech was shared with the public only through newspapers until 1923, when President Calvin Coolidge's annual message was broadcast on radio. Franklin D. Roosevelt first used the phrase "State of the Union" in 1935, and in 1947, Roosevelt's successor Harry S. Truman became the first president to deliver a televised address."
Watching the address, I have to say that the references supplied during the speech actually did help understand where the President was coming from. And yeah, I agree with Emma when she says America isn't necessarily getting dumber. Obama even mentions during his bit on immigration that Asian and Hispanics are actually a demographic that must be given our attention. I'm under the impression that he was also trying to be conscious of the large spectrum of people that would watching the address.
I actually enjoyed the speech, to say the least.
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