yourDictionary.com Answers the Question: Do Kerry and Bush Speak the Same Language?

Business Wire, Oct 1, 2004

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- yourDictionary.com (YDC) has announced the results of its analysis of the first presidential debates of 2004. Not unexpectedly, John Kerry's language was more erudite than George Bush's--but only slightly. Using the popular Flesch-Kincaid Reading Scale, YDC found that the grade-level of Senator Kerry's English was 7.3 while that of President Bush was 6.8, only a half grade lower.

Senator Kerry's sentences contained an average of 14.9 words while those of President Bush contained only 12.6 words.

However, despite squeezing in 2.5 more words per sentence, the "reading ease" of Senator Kerry's speech (68.2) was equal to that of President Bush (68.1). This measure is the result of the Flesch Readability Test, which measures the ease with a text can be read.

According to Dr. Robert Beard, CEO of yourDictionary, "Most stylists recommend writing in a reading ease range of 60-70%, so both candidates were right on target here. What is surprising is that Senator Kerry successfully squeezed in 2.5 more words per sentence without losing any clarity."

Grade levels of the televised debates, which began with the Kennedy-Nixon debates in 1960, peaked in the Carter-Reagan debates of 1980. Since then they have settled at about the 6th-8th grade level since then. This is the result of better understanding of readability and comprehensibility brought out by such tests as those used by yourDictionary and politicians' desire to reach the widest possible audience.

A fuller analysis of presidential debates and speeches can be found at: http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/presart1.html.

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