Eevry six mohnts or so, a fernid lraens of the fmaous Cgdibmare Utisriveny sdtuy auobt gaamrmr and langguae, qtoinug teshe wodrs taht are erhevrweye:
“Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.”
The lsaett epdsoie hpnapeed a few huros ago wehn a fnired on Fboeocak wotre auobt it. The ponit of the stduy is taht I can mix up the oderr of lertets in wdros and you wlil slitl be albe to raed it. Tihs hnaepps bucasee I use wrods taht are shrot and smilpe to raed; not wdors lkie “poorurpti” and “rrodhnoodedn” and “tpnaimi” taht are hrad to raed.
Presuming you can read/write English, did I confuse you? If not, this is why you should use simple and short words in your next blog post.
Sources: background links and scramble your own text
{ 12 comments }
Twitter: DannyBrown
December 29, 2009 at 10:03 AM
Normally this works, and I’ve seen similar posts or examples before. But you make a good point here why it doesn’t always work, as this gave my eyes a workout that’s way too strenuous for a morning challenge!
Cheers!
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If you REALLY want a workout, head over to a blog post I wrote entitled, Or Pnershy Bayvar: Ovt Oebgure vf Jngpuvat!
Ari,
Nice reminder for those of us who trade in words and communication. Cutting through techno-words is especially crucial for those in technology PR and marketing who need to communicate complex ideas. Thknas fro the reminedr!
Think primary colors next time. Every color can be reduced down to its primaries.
Is it bad that I understood most of that?
.-= New from Stuart Foster: Moving Beyond the Novelty: Geolocation =-.
No, it means you don’t read everything.
I misunderstood almost all the brain teasers you wrote above but I understood what you really wanted to let us know. Blogs or posts written in difficult words literally intimidate the readers. People navigate through dictionary or wiki to get some hints. Ultimately they get fed up and bloggers may lose potential readers. So write in a very easy and comprehensive way what they say “The simplest things are often the truest”.
I’ve seen this before and thought it was fascinating that no matter how mixed up the words were, my brain is “trained” to read it correctly.
I have noticed that pros like Seth Godin and Chris Brogan have narrowed their blog posts down to only two or three paragraphs (sometimes less) and appreciate not only the easy reading but the consideration for readers’ time.
Interesting: pretty well the only challenging words were the ones that started with L – my mind thought they were capital Is.
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This is a very cool read. I always like these jumbled words and being able to read them. Never gets old. I still couldnt figure out the long words though. Any hint on what they were?
Since I wrote them, yes. Which words?
Twitter: RetroCollage
January 14, 2011 at 11:32 PM
The other thing I try to remember is to keep paragraphs short, too. That also helps the readability on the web.
Art of RetroCollage recently wrote Blazing Star
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