Quote:
Originally Posted by tompe
Yes smaller numerical value is good but you said it provided more information. A specific language have an average world length so for the case were the text is typical the different measurements are equivalent. If the average word length in the text is atypical then it seems to me that the reading speed is more proportional to the character count than to the word count. For very long words you increase the number of fixation points.
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Hmm, I may have overstated. What I get from word count is a more solid grasp of how fast the text might be read. As far as I can see all character count gives me are larger numbers and a layer of abstraction that takes beyond useful units of language. Neither of which seem desirable to me.
As far as text with long words, I can't think of too many situations where a book might be sufficiently heavy in long unfamiliar words to affect reading speed appreciably on the book as a whole. These things tend to average out.