Introduction
This article is all about Steem White Paper. If you are a Steemer and you don't know what it is - shame on you! You can find it here.If English is not your native language (like myself) you may have some big problems with understanding it. But don't worry - after this article you will know why it's like that.
As always with my statistics - you can see interactive graphs on infogr.am.
Readability
Readability is the ease with which a reader can understand a written text. The readability of text depends on its content - the complexity of its vocabulary and syntax. There are many tests to determinate text readability and most popular of them are used in this article:- Flesch Reading Ease - It was developed under contract to the U.S. Navy in 1975 by J. Peter Kincaid and his team. The U.S. Department of Defense uses the Reading Ease test as the standard test of readability for its documents and forms. Florida requires that life insurance policies have a Flesch Reading Ease score of 45 or greater. It's the only test where higher score (from 0 to 100) represents text easier to read.
- Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level - It was first used by the U.S. Navy for assessing the difficulty of technical manuals in 1978. The Army uses it for assessing the difficulty of technical manuals. The commonwealth of Pennsylvania uses Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level for scoring automobile insurance policies to ensure their texts are no higher than a ninth grade level of reading difficulty. Many other U.S. states also use it to score other legal documents such as business policies and financial forms.
- Gunning Fog Index - The test was developed by Robert Gunning, an American businessman, in 1952. It measures the readability of English writing and estimates the years of formal education needed to understand the text on a first reading.
- SMOG Index - It was developed by G. Harry McLaughlin as a more accurate and more easily calculated substitute for the Gunning fog index and published in 1969. SMOG is a measure of readability that estimates the years of education needed to understand a piece of writing. It's the acronym derived from Simple Measure of Gobbledygook. SMOG is widely used for checking consumer-orientated healthcare material.
- Coleman-Liau Index - It was designed by Meri Coleman and T. L. Liau in 1975 to gauge the understandability of a text. The Coleman-Liau Index usually gives a lower grade value than any of the Kincaid, ARI and Flesch values when applied to technical documents.
- Automated Readability Index - From 1975 it's widely used on all types of texts.
Preparing the data
Steem White Paper was divided into parts:- Abstract
- Introduction
- Ways to Contribute [without Steem Dollars (SMD) and Subjective Contributions]
- Steem Dollars (SMD) [part of Ways to Contribute]
- Subjective Contributions [part of Ways to Contribute]
- Consensus Algorithm
- Eliminating Transaction Fees
- Performance and Scalability
- Allocation & Supply
- The Power of Steem
- Conclusion
Text was copied without chapter names, other titles, graphs annotations and of course page numbers. Then all line breaks were deleted and text become one giant section. Every part and whole Steem White Paper was pasted into online tests which measure text readability.
Online tests used in this article:
- Approsto
- CheckText
- DairyScience (600 words limit)
- FixText
- JoesWebTools
- Online-Utility
- ReadabilityFormulas (at least 100 words)
- ReadabilityScore
- WebpageFX
There were some differences in numbers between sites so all scores in one type of test were averaged. Then scores from all tests (without Flesch Reading Ease) were also averaged and that's the way we found out how complicated is every part of White Paper.
I did the same steps with whole document Steem White Paper.
Parts of Steem White Paper
Abstract
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
Introduction
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
Ways to Contribute
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
Steem Dollars (SMD)
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
Subjective Contributions
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
Consensus Algorithm
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
Eliminating Transaction Fees
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
Performance and Scalability
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
Allocation & Supply
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
The Power of Steem
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
Conclusion
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
Whole Steem White Paper
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
[click fo bigger size] |
Average scores in parts of Steem White Paper
Tests compare in Whole Steem White Paper
Readability of Steem White Paper
| Readability | U.S. education level | Understanding (age) | |
| Abstract | Very Confusing | College graduate | 23-24 years |
| Introduction | Difficult | College freshman | 18-19 years |
| Ways to Contribute | Fairly Difficult | High school sophomore | 15-16 years |
| Steem Dollars (SMD) | Difficult | High school junior | 16-17 years |
| Subjective Contributions | Difficult | High school senior | 17-18 years |
| Consensus Algorithm | Difficult | High school senior | 17-18 years |
| Eliminating Transaction Fees | Fairly Difficult | High school junior | 16-17 years |
| Performance and Scalability | Difficult | High school sophomore | 15-16 years |
| Allocation & Supply | Fairly Difficult | High school junior | 16-17 years |
| The Power of Steem | Difficult | High school junior | 16-17 years |
| Conclusion | Difficult | College sophomore | 19-20 years |
| Whole WHITE PAPER | Difficult | High school senior | 17-18 years |
Conclusion
Looking at Whole Steem White Paper - it should be readable for every high school senior in the United States. The problem starts when we look at parts of document. The "worst" parts are Abstract, Introduction and Conclusion - two of them are right at the start. It's the first contact with Steem White Paper and people could feel a little too overwhelmed with the complication of the text.Those data is little confusing because Flesch Reading Ease shows that the text is more complicated comparing to grade level. Table from Wikipedia:
Steem White Paper has average Ease at 48,10 - and it clearly shows "college" which is "difficult to read". If this document is hard for citizens of the United States how a foreigner could be smart in English enough to understand Steem White Paper?
And I leave you with this...