Michelle's speech at 12th grade level, Ann's at 5th grade level

[cali]

FLOTUS speech written at a 12th grade level

By BYRON TAU |
9/5/12 12:55 PM EDT

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — First lady Michelle Obama's Tuesday speech was written at a 12th grade level and was the most 'advanced' speech ever delivered by a presidential nominee's spouse, an analysis finds.

The University of Minnesota's Smart Politics blog finds, using the Flesch-Kincaid readability test, that Obama's speech was delivered at a 12.84 grade level.

That's in contrast with Ann Romney's speech last week at the Republican convention, which measured at a 5th grade level.

The test — which does not factor in the message of speeches — judges readability by word syllables and sentence structure.

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http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/09/flotus-speech-written-at-a-th-grade-level-134517.html

[Posteritatis]

1. Sad that "twelfth grade level" is considered epochal.. (nt)

[The Doctor.]

11. It's actually a bit high.

Considering the average level of literacy in the US, that's a few levels high. Luckily, it was appropriate for her entire audience.

So was Ann Romney's.

[liberalmuse]

2. Considering...

the average newspaper is written on an 8th grade level, I'd say she did a stellar job!

[Cha]

9. Ha!

[JBoy]

3. Sounds about right.

[Egnever]

4. Does this play into the Dems are intellectual snobs meme?

Or did Mitts wife target her audience accurately

[catbyte]

8. You know we're in trouble as a country if 12th grade comprehension = intellectual snobbery

Yikes!

[Terra Alta]

5. anything above a 5th grade level

and Ann's audience wouldn't have been able to comprehend her.

As it is, many probably didn't comprehend her at a 5th grade level; perhaps she should have spoken to them at a pre-school level to get her message across to a wider audience.

[grasswire]

6. and yet on the night of Michelle's speech...

...I was monitoring the freepers and one of them said that her son remarked that what he hates about Democrats is that they always talk down to you as if you are a kindergartner.

Ha!

[Vincardog]

7. Both speeches were correct for their target audiences.

[Cleita]

10. Ann always reminds me of how we speak to toddlers. n/t

[trof]

12. It appears that both ladies knew their respective audiences.

[trof]

13. Kicked back to page 1.