New Debate Statistics page
To give more insight into debates and a different sort of view of the arguments people are using in debates, we put together a debate stats page. The statistics reflect the kind of language people are using to debate their points, including word length, readability scoring of the arguments, and a word frequency cloud.
We’ve been putting up the election debates, like tonight’s Vice Presidential Debate Transcript, and the VP debate stats show that Palin used more complicated phrasing than Biden. We’re using a standard formula to rate the grade level of the arguments called the Flesh-Kincaid Readability Grade Level formula. It takes into account the average length of sentences and the average number of syllables in those words to determine the readability of the arguments.
Since the graph of word lengths shows that Biden and Palin used about the same length words, that means her sentences were longer overall. The stats for the Presidential Foreign Policy Debate show that the language level McCain and Obama used was more similar. Both spoke at an 11th grade level of understandability.
As always, let us know what you think about the stats page, and any suggestions about other sorts of info you would want to know about debates you’re participating in.
The article has
Written by Dan
October 3rd, 2008 at 1:02 am
Posted in Debate Commentary, New Features
I do not believe there is a useful reason to employ the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test for the sake of statistics on the political debates or the debates here on create debate.com. It’s a valuable tool in education but why use it here?
Kuklapolitan/Chris B.
5 Oct 08 at 8:25 pm
I hope that you are reporting the money that you are spending on 2-way debates where there are more than 2 candidates. By choosing 2 candidates and ignoring the others, your company is making in-kind campaign contributions to selected candidates. These must be reported as such and, if the expenditures go over legal limits (where there are such limits), the continuing contributions in the form of exclusive “debates” must cease. (Providing alternative mechanisms for people to voice their positions beyond the selected choices would be the alternative to curtailing a given debate.)
Rock
6 Oct 08 at 12:08 pm
@Rock Anyone is more than welcome to create a new debate about any candidate (or set of candidates) running for office. In fact, a mechanism for people to voice their positions is the primary modus operandi of CreateDebate.
Click “Create” on the main menu bar to get started.
Loudacris
6 Oct 08 at 12:29 pm