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Monday, April 21, 2008

South Carolina Handbook, compared to other Travel Handbooks


These stats come courtesy of Amazon.com. I was very happy to see I used shorter words than most. (That's how I get my word counts up....) However, I think--if I read the last section correctly--I use longer sentences than some, which is something I want to improve upon, as it is confusing for readers when they have to try to follow along with the logic of a single--though greatly qualified--thought, no matter how many single-syllable words I use.

Complexity
Complex Words: 28% have fewer, 72% have more
Syllables per Word: 24% have fewer, 76% have more
Words per Sentence: 56% have fewer, 44% have more

Number of Characters
Characters 75% fewer, 25% more (hey, I’m trying to be comprehensive)
Words 75% fewer, 25% more
Sentences 70% fewer, 30% more

My average sentence is 17.6 words, and my average word is 1.6 syllables.

Again, the comparisons above are versus other travel guidebooks. Versus all books carried on Amazon.com, only 6% of them have more words.

Wow. No wonder it took a year to write the first edition.

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