![]() I am talking with potential collaborators on a project where we’d be creating online learning experiences for non-traditional learners - people from developing countries who may not have full mastery of academic English. Try pasting your course syllabus into Hemingway and see how opaque your language is to your students. If students don’t understand what we’re even asking them to do, how can we expect them to do it? Experiment - How Accessible is your Syllabus? It can become an issue of access when we use abstract language in our instructions to students - like on the course syllabus. This is arguably appropriate for highly-prepared students, but the reality is that many students entering higher education today have significant gaps in their knowledge and struggle to access overly abstract language. In my experience with online courseware product and textbooks, they often tend to be written in highly abstract, academic language. Just as Ernest Hemingway demonstrated that minimalistic writing can be powerful and effective, we must strive to find the clarity and immediacy in language our students can access. We as teachers have to balance the competing demands of modeling sophisticated use of academic language while being clearly understood to all learners. I see this as a better tool for teachers, though - especially those of us who can’t help but write long convoluted sentences using ten-cent words. The more students learn to self-monitor their writing, the more conscious they will become about their writing process.Įven though Hemingway editor discourages you from writing above a ninth-grade level, I can see students taking pride in writing at- or above- grade level. I love the idea of students getting feedback continuously as they write - it’s one reason I am a fan of AfterTheDeadline from Automattic. Students could use Hemingway to provide real-time writing help, coaching them to write at a grade-appropriate level. Of course I’m writing for geniuses like you, dear reader, so I have confidence that my capricious dalliances with baroque prose will be well met in your fertile minds. As a result, Hemingway highlights most of my sentences in red - a sign that they’re too hard for an average reader to comprehend. Too often I show off my fancy vocabulary words, and Hemingway never fails to ding me for it. It chides you to write for a 9th grade level so you can be more clearly understood. Hemingway scans through your writing, assigning a “grade level” to your word choice. Once writing has become your major vice and greatest pleasure, only death can stop it. ![]() Though I don’t use it as my main markdown editor, I’ve been thinking about ways it can be useful in a variety of learning tasks. Hemingway is a markdown editor that coaches you to write more clearly, helping you to emulate Ernest Hemingway‘s trademark sparse, journalistic style.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |