Michelle O's speech 7 grade levels above Ann R's

[basilosaurus]

LOL!

I thought you were supposed to communicate at an 8th grade level for the most understanding but still adequately communicate your thoughts. So, Obama would be right on with that.

[Deleted]

While I agree her speach was great, aren't the two speaches supposed to be completely different? We "know" the Obama's while Ann Romeny was introducing her husband. Though her 2008 numbers were still better than Ann's 2012.

[basilosaurus]

Sept 6, 2012 21:53:55 GMT -5 @majorwife said:

You are supposed to write news articles at a 5thdealership grade level.

When did that change? I thought it was most recently at 7th, down from 10th a few decades ago.

[EllieArroway]

Sept 6, 2012 21:53:55 GMT -5 @majorwife said:

You are supposed to write news articles at a 5thdealership grade level.

Wow, that is sad.

[basilosaurus]

Hmm. I guess since I taught business writing it was appropriate that I told them to aim for 8th. That was 2003-2006. I hoped it hadn't gotten worse since then!

[taratru]

Just one more reason I love her.

[emilyj]

When I went through school at the end of the 90's, we were taught to write to an 8th grade audience. When I worked in TV, that's about what we practiced. Now in our journalism/PR/broadcasting major, that's the standard we're still teaching.

[emilyj]

I thought MO's speech sounded a lot more natural than Ann Romney's. Even in normal speech style. Grown adults don't speak in those short, staccato sentences like Ann did. Of course, I am biased here because MO didn't tell me that I should do equal work as a man and take my payment in martyrdom, so I was a little less pissed when I was listening to her.

[sunny]

for consent forms, we strive for 8th grade reading level.

[emilyj]

Sept 7, 2012 1:29:54 GMT -5 neeps said:

This just seems really insensitive. Don't "grown adults" with MS typically speak in a staccato way?

You know, if it is, I really apologize. I honestly never remember that Ann Romney has MS until I'm reminded of it. However, I know and interact with several people with MS, and in my (limited) personal experience, they do not speak like that.

[Deleted]

Yeah, no set way--one coworker I've known for 9 years and would never have known she has MS I she hadn't said.

Another friend would go from completely incapacitated to totally fine (appearing at least) year to year.

[Deleted]

Fascinating article. I wonder who writes their speeches?

[Melissa W.]

Am I the only one that checked to see what grade level I write on? LOL..

[passthewine]

Sept 7, 2012 10:44:34 GMT -5 @lauriergirl28 said:

Fascinating article. I wonder who writes their speeches?

I was wondering the same thing.

[aurora]

Sept 6, 2012 21:45:21 GMT -5 NewOrleans said:

Whether or not one believes Ann Romney was speaking plainly, or speaking down to her target audience is one for the pundits to debate.

This is along the lines of what I was wondering while reading. However, I did not realize until reading the replies that MS could affect speech patterns.

It is sad that we seem to have a growing literacy problem in the U.S.

[eclaires]

Sept 7, 2012 12:31:53 GMT -5 asdfjkl said:

Sept 7, 2012 12:28:33 GMT -5 aurora said:

This is along the lines of what I was wondering while reading. However, I did not realize until reading the replies that MS could affect speech patterns.

It is sad that we seem to have a growing literacy problem in the U.S.

Even if it affected her speech pattern, I'm going to assume it's not responsible for the (lack of) complexity of her ideas and message.

Really? I wouldn't be surprised if they wrote her speech with her MS in mind, especially if it affects her speech patterns. I imagine most of what she was trying to say, or the themes of her speech would have been similar, but I guess I would think they would keep her MS in mind when the speech was written, which would affect the level of it and keeping it simple.

Of course, I kind of roll my eyes at candidate's spouses speaking, regardless, so I don't really care too much about the content or the grade level.

[ttt]

Sept 7, 2012 10:44:34 GMT -5 @lauriergirl28 said:

Fascinating article. I wonder who writes their speeches?

Didn't Michelle write her own?

[heyjude]

Sept 7, 2012 13:07:49 GMT -5 eclaires said:

Sept 7, 2012 12:31:53 GMT -5 asdfjkl said:

Even if it affected her speech pattern, I'm going to assume it's not responsible for the (lack of) complexity of her ideas and message.

Really? I wouldn't be surprised if they wrote her speech with her MS in mind, especially if it affects her speech patterns. I imagine most of what she was trying to say, or the themes of her speech would have been similar, but I guess I would think they would keep her MS in mind when the speech was written, which would affect the level of it and keeping it simple.

Of course, I kind of roll my eyes at candidate's spouses speaking, regardless, so I don't really care too much about the content or the grade level.

I think you just kind of hit the nail on the head with my problem of AR's speech. "They" wrote her speech. MO wrote her own.

And "I love you womennnnnnn" will be stuck in my head forever.

[eclaires]

I see what you're saying about her speech being simple because of the ideas within, no matter what level it was written at, but I do wonder if her limited speaking experience, her MS, etc. played into where they went with trying to make her appeal to people and make a connection, kwim? Perhaps they (and I have no idea who wrote her speech - maybe she did - by they, I mean whoever she talked to about speaking and helped her and Mittens decide that she should speak and what she would say) decided to go with simple ideas and simple writing to make it easy on her when speaking.

I mean, you can talk about themes of love, family, being a mom in a way that doesn't sound incredibly simple. Nor do I necessarily think they are simple ideas.

But I don't really know why I'm even typing this out, other than to explain my thoughts. I don't really care how either of them speak or what they speak about.

[shopgirl07]

My Dad has MS, a different type than Ann Romney's, and he's pretty sick right now.

It affects his speech in that his speech is often slurred and very difficult to understand. But it doesn't affect his speech patterns, just other's ability to understand him.

It's possible Ann Romney's speechwriters kept her sentences short so she wouldn't get too fatigued. But it doesn't appear that her MS has affected her speech whenever I've heard her speak. But who knows.

[eclaires]

Sept 7, 2012 14:03:29 GMT -5 asdfjkl said:

I think what played into it is this:

Her "job" was to humanize Romney, but she's as disconnected from the "every woman" as her husband is from the "every man", so the "us moms" bullshit seemed like just that.

Also, in order to connect with the "every woman" Ann had to tell a story that seemed like it could happen to anyone, but so little of their life is something that could happen to anyone, that she was relegated to the land of broad, empty platitudes.

Essentially, her problem was her subject matter. It's like if someone asked me to write a paper about how welcoming the Catholic Church is to gays. Um.... well, I'm Catholic so I know a lot about Catholicism. Enough to know it's not welcoming to gays. So... I guess... um... "Let me talk to you about love. Christ's love for us all."

Compare this to Michelle. She's a lawyer. Words are her job. So yeah, her speech is going to be more polished and more wordy or whatever. But her "topic" was complex. She was talking about difficult ideas - her job was to explain to the American people how it is that the man they became so enamored of in 2008 could be the same AND different. She had to tackle the way he's disappointed us while convincing people that the core of what drew us to him was still there. That is a considerably more difficult task than "Why I love Mitt."

The result was more nuance, more complexity, more to connect with and consider in Michelle's. So, IMO, the whole words per sentence is... interesting... But it's more a symptom of the problem than a problem on its own.

ITA and almost wrote a whole paragraph about how her content was also limited by what they were trying to accomplish and where she could go with that, considering who they are and their lifestyle.

[emisi]

The thing that most depressed me about this whole topic is that newspaper articles are written at a 5th grade level. Really? If I was a journalist, I'd be kind of pissed that I went through college to end up writing at that low of a level.

[ChillyMcFreeze]

Sept 7, 2012 16:56:41 GMT -5 emisi said:

The thing that most depressed me about this whole topic is that newspaper articles are written at a 5th grade level. Really? If I was a journalist, I'd be kind of pissed that I went through college to end up writing at that low of a level.

That's part of what they drill into you in J-school. Abandon all your instincts, stop writing term papers and start writing for the local yokels. It's definitely a challenge.

[teflep]

Sept 7, 2012 14:03:29 GMT -5 asdfjkl said:

I think what played into it is this:

Her "job" was to humanize Romney, but she's as disconnected from the "every woman" as her husband is from the "every man", so the "us moms" bullshit seemed like just that.

Also, in order to connect with the "every woman" Ann had to tell a story that seemed like it could happen to anyone, but so little of their life is something that could happen to anyone, that she was relegated to the land of broad, empty platitudes.

Essentially, her problem was her subject matter. It's like if someone asked me to write a paper about how welcoming the Catholic Church is to gays. Um.... well, I'm Catholic so I know a lot about Catholicism. Enough to know it's not welcoming to gays. So... I guess... um... "Let me talk to you about love. Christ's love for us all."

Compare this to Michelle. She's a lawyer. Words are her job. So yeah, her speech is going to be more polished and more wordy or whatever. But her "topic" was complex. She was talking about difficult ideas - her job was to explain to the American people how it is that the man they became so enamored of in 2008 could be the same AND different. She had to tackle the way he's disappointed us while convincing people that the core of what drew us to him was still there. That is a considerably more difficult task than "Why I love Mitt."

The result was more nuance, more complexity, more to connect with and consider in Michelle's. So, IMO, the whole words per sentence is... interesting... But it's more a symptom of the problem than a problem on its own.

Michelle and Barack are known factors so of course youll have time for nuance and lip service.
The romneys aren't. Couple that with her, apparent, speaking difficulty, of course it will be more chopped to accommodate her.

[shopgirl07]

Sept 7, 2012 19:07:23 GMT -5 @publius said:

Sept 7, 2012 14:04:26 GMT -5 shopgirl07 said:

My Dad has MS, a different type than Ann Romney's, and he's pretty sick right now.

It affects his speech in that his speech is often slurred and very difficult to understand. But it doesn't affect his speech patterns, just other's ability to understand him.

It's possible Ann Romney's speechwriters kept her sentences short so she wouldn't get too fatigued. But it doesn't appear that her MS has affected her speech whenever I've heard her speak. But who knows.

Again, MS affects everyone differently, in no small part because no two people's size, shape, and location of lesions on the brain and spine are the same. It affects people's speech in different ways. When I was recently inthe hospital the list of questions re: my speech went far beyond slurring. (Click on the link I posted originally there are about a dozen ways MS affects speech beyond slurring). It's not a disease where you can say, well so and so has it and they're like this because another person's experience is going to be completely different.

Also, t&p for your dad. I hope he recovers from this attack soon.

I realize it affects everyone differently. As I mentioned, I believe my Dad and Ann Romney have different types of MS.

Thank you for your thoughts on my Dad, his MS is progressive so he won't be recovering. I hope you're doing well too.

[teflep]

Sept 7, 2012 21:18:13 GMT -5 asdfjkl said:

Sept 7, 2012 19:15:54 GMT -5 teflep said:

Michelle and Barack are known factors so of course youll have time for nuance and lip service.
The romneys aren't. Couple that with her, apparent, speaking difficulty, of course it will be more chopped to accommodate her.

Yeah, except I think I've said maybe 4 times now that I'm not at all talking about her cadence or her word choice.

which is why I didn't focus on them but rather footnote it.

[ringstrue]

Do we have anything concrete that AR's speech is in anyway affected by MS or is it all still just speculation??

[heyjude]

Sept 8, 2012 7:12:36 GMT -5 ringstrue said:

Do we have anything concrete that AR's speech is in anyway affected by MS or is it all still just speculation??

None.

[2vermont]

Considering I have crappy reading/listening comprehension and still consider myself intelligent, I find this discussion fairly ......IDK.....AP?

[ttt]

I don't understand why MS would make it difficult for her to use complex sentences and larger words. This makes no sense to me.

Wasn't there something posted recently about *all* the Republican speeches being at a lower grade level than the Democrats' speeches?