Lies, damed lies and (glorious) stats

Via The Frontal Cortex, I see that Amazon now has a few tidbits of information about some books, so I had to take a look to see the last two I worked on (not entirely my work/words, but mostly for amusement).

Professional XML:

These statistics are computed from the text of this book. (learn more)
Readability (learn more) Compared with books in Computer... > Programm... > Language... > General    
Fog Index:  12.5
37% are easier
63% are harder
Flesch Index:  45.7
38% are easier
62% are harder
Flesch-Kincaid Index:  10.0
35% are easier
65% are harder
 
Complexity (learn more)
Complex Words:  19%
55% have fewer
45% have more
Syllables per Word:  1.8
55% have fewer
45% have more
Words per Sentence:  12.7
26% have fewer
74% have more
 
Number of
Characters:  1,622,846
85% have fewer
15% have more
Words:  227,865
83% have fewer
17% have more
Sentences:  17,986
85% have fewer
15% have more
 
Fun stats
Words per Dollar:  6,907  
Words per Ounce:  5,217  

Easy reading, and 6.9Kwords per dollar! That's about 20,000 words for the price of a (decent) latte! Where else can you get a bargain like that? Well...

Professional VB 2005:

(They didn't have the concordance set up for the new edition yet)
These statistics are computed from the text of this book. (learn more)
Readability (learn more) Compared with books in Computer... > Programm... > Language... > General    
Fog Index:  13.1
56% are easier
44% are harder
Flesch Index:  46.9
40% are easier
60% are harder
Flesch-Kincaid Index:  10.5
53% are easier
47% are harder
 
Complexity (learn more)
Complex Words:  18%
53% have fewer
47% have more
Syllables per Word:  1.7
46% have fewer
54% have more
Words per Sentence:  15.1
64% have fewer
36% have more
 
Number of
Characters:  2,173,556
98% have fewer
2% have more
Words:  337,224
98% have fewer
2% have more
Sentences:  22,325
98% have fewer
2% have more
 
Fun stats
Words per Dollar:  9,921  
Words per Ounce:  6,799  


That's right -- almost 10,000 words per dollar! (The new edition is even longer/larger, so the bargains keep piling on. Operators and Web sites are standing by.)
Print | posted on Monday, October 22, 2007 3:16 PM
Comments have been closed on this topic.