Study: Donald Trump's speech aims at 4th grade level listeners.

[pnwmom]

Which is why he sounds like such an idiot to most of us, but appeals to many.

This is scary.

I bet he does it on purpose. I don't think he could have succeeded at Wharton if this was his true level of speech.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2015/10/20/donald-trump-and-ben-carson-speak-grade-school-level-that-today-voters-can-quickly-grasp/LUCBY6uwQAxiLvvXbVTSUN/story.html

WASHINGTON — When Donald Trump announced his presidential campaign, he decried the lack of intelligence of elected officials in characteristically blunt terms.

“How stupid are our leaders?” he said. “How stupid are they?”


But with his own choice of words and his short, simple sentences, Trump’s speech could have been comprehended by a fourth-grader. Yes, a fourth-grader.

The Globe reviewed the language used by 19 presidential candidates, Democrats and Republicans, in speeches announcing their campaigns for the 2016 presidential election. The review, using a common algorithm called the Flesch-Kincaid readability test that crunches word choice and sentence structure and spits out grade-level rankings, produced some striking results.

SNIP

[Takket]

1. he should probably aim lower then. there is still a large portion of the GOP voting block

he is missing at 4th grade level.

[cali]

2. I'm shocked it's that high.

[Journeyman]

3. He *could* tailor his speech to appeal to all the thinking people in America. . .

but as Adlai Stevenson observed in the early 1950s, that wouldn't be enough; he needs a majority to get elected.

[BlueJazz]

4. And he's one of the smart ones.

.
.

[B Calm]

5. If he expects to pick up some of Cruz supporters, he'll have to drop it down to 1st grade level.

[Funtatlaguy]

6. Yes, and for Carson supporters

Either comatose or back in the womb.

[B Calm]

12. LOL

[KamaAina]

7. Most newspapers are written at a fourth-grade level.

[pnwmom]

9. I doubt that. I just checked a NYTimes article on the Flesch Kincaid scale

(I picked the top article in the left hand corner) and the result was "Grade 13, ages 18-19" "college entry level.

[KamaAina]

10. The NY Times is not one of them

though I had read it's at a sixth-grade level.

[pnwmom]

11. Just checked on another article -- the one about the SOTU speech --

and it came in at the 10th grade level.

I bet the WA Post, the Boston Globe, and other national newspapers would be similar.

http://www.readabilityformulas.com/freetests/six-readability-formulas.php

[Laura PourMeADrink]

8. Not surprised. His themes are incredibly simple with few words. But

to me, this is why he's been successful. clear, quick memes that are easily remembered. Actually think this would help Obama.