Our process (PDF) starts with audience analysis. It’s a lot easier to communicate something if you know who you’re communicating it to, and Flesch-Kincaid is one of the tools that helps us see how easy or hard it is to read text we’ve written. The scale uses word and sentence length to determine the score for a text. More syllables per word and more words per sentence means a higher grade level (or for the reading ease scale, a lower score). You can see the scale at the link.

For instance, paragraph 1 above has a grade level of 24 and a reading ease score of 15. Basically, written at a college graduate reading level. Paragraph 2 above has a grade level of 10 and a readability score of 55 – verging on junior high reading. That makes sense, though: graf 1 is 99 words long, with only 2 sentences. Graf 2 is 89 words, but 5 sentences. As with any equation, there are lots of ways to goose the score, and no method is perfect, but it’s still a helpful tool to assess a written piece.

Apparently, Tom was trying to build on our burgeoning self-confidence, but that could always backfire. As usual, the Onion got there first and best. And for an animated take on our intra-office banter, this. Not so much the merits of various styles of unarmed combat, but the repeated blows to the groin. After all, no groin, no krav maga.

About that, uh, yeah. Riiiiight. Remember, in 2006 this guy was the head of the senate commerce committee, which regulates e-commerce.

Anyway, if you use Wikipedia all the time (as writers and editors, it’s an invaluable tool for us to get general overviews on a wide range of topics… so, pretty much the same as for everybody else) you still can, you just have to find another way to see the info you want. One simple way is to use Google’s cache. These steps are for the Chrome browser, but you can find the cached links in all browsers.

1. Google the term/phrase you want plus Wikipedia.
2. In the results, position your mouse pointer over the result linking to Wikipedia. This will cause a chevron (set of right-pointing arrows) to show up to the right of the link.
3. Position your mouse pointer over the chevron. This will cause a preview of the page to be displayed to the right of the link.
4. Click the “cached” link. 

There are, of course, several other ways to do this, not least of which is “the Internet.” So, last but not least, it’s probably also useful to post this.

The jury summons letter – described as “error-ridden” – included “trail” for “trial,” “manger” for “manager,” and the incorrect address and phone number for the Superior Court of New Jersey.

The teacher says she needed the time off to recover from an injury sustained at the school that the principal wouldn’t let her submit an injury report for.

Without weighing in on anybody’s credibility, we’d like to point out that some proper editing might have saved everybody some embarrassment here. (And possibly abetted a crime, but let’s ignore that for now.)

Proofreading: it works!

Come talk to us about technical writing, design, and other content generation (for your website, blog, social media campaign, etc.). We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

A recent article on Bloomberg News confirms what we’ve all been thinking: children are driving sales of tablet devices like the iPad much more aggressively than anyone had originally thought.

With the gift-giving season in full swing, many holiday shoppers have their eyes set on one of the big three tablet devices – the Apple iPad, the Amazon Kindle Fire, and the Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet. While the price point of the iPad is typically high at $499, these new competitors through Amazon and Barnes & Noble are priced very competitively at $199 and $249 respectively. That said, a lot of shoppers are finding these very easy purchases to justify, especially if they encourage some really fun, educational, and enriching activities for children.

So what’s the benefit of this market saturation for artists and publishers? An increased demand for kid-oriented content. Games, interactive books, and creative applications typically enjoy the most success with children aged 6-12, and they represent a great value to parents with their high re-playability.

Soulo Communications just finished its first interactive children’s book in conjunction with Sara Button and Flying Word Inc., called Black Bear, Loon, and Walleye, and it is now available on the Apple App Store, Android Market, and Barnes & Noble Nook Store.

If you’re an artist, storyteller, or creative, don’t let this emerging market pass you by. Soulo Communications offers a wide range of content development and production services to get your interactive children’s book off the ground and into the hands of kids everywhere. Feel free to get ahold of us to discuss your upcoming projects!

As a group of actual people who make up the company, we’re thankful to our families, friends, each other (It’s true! We even like one another!) and the actual individual people who make up the companies we do business with.

To everyone out there, have a delightful and safe Thanksgiving. I can’t say that we’ll have a Black Friday sale starting at 3 AM, but as our clients know, we’re open almost all the time anyway, so drop us a line if we can help with anything.

The e-book is being released released along with FlyingWord and was developed through a strategic partnership between Soulo Communications and FlyingWord. According to Tom Heller, president of Soulo Communications, “This will be the first of many interactive and immersive e-book projects that Soulo will be releasing over the next few years. In fact, this represents the primary focus for Soulo Communications’ publishing division.”

The children’s book, which has sold several thousand copies hardcover, was a natural for the project, with its beatiful illustrations, engaging characters, terrific audio narration and original song, and delightfully simple storytelling. “It sold out of its first printing,” says Heller, “and its on its way to selling out a second printing. So it’s already popular, and when we approached Sara about creating an interactive e-book, she jumped at the opportunity. Her book was a perfect fit for this technology.”

Interacting with a book on a tablet computer using FlyingWord is more immersive than just watching an animated video of the story. Readers dive into the story, manipulating the characters, artwork, images, objects, controlling narration and sound effects, all with the touch of a finger. It’s simply more fun and engaging to read a FlyingWord enhanced e-book.

“Everybody already loved this book,” says Heller, “but now it’s even more engrossing. My kids won’t put it down!”

We spend a lot of time on fonts in our office, and not just on font issues (lousy Helvetica TT pack purchased years ago with the screwed up outline rather than bold) but on selection and use and style. We’ll take small issue with opening up a glyph “pallet” (seems like rather a lot of glyphs), but otherwise fully endorse font nerdery.