The pat test

Tim Footman gave a link to this splendid website, and it’s impossible to resist trying everything on it.  I’ve got a marvellously appalling letter from someone at the county council – it wasn’t actually written to me but forwarded: unfortunately it’s a PDF that can’t be copied and pasted, because I’m quite sure it would almost go off the bullshit scale.  I could type it in, I suppose, but it hardly seems worth it.  I tried a rather more innocuous letter from one of his colleagues and it came up with a score of 85 and a comment “This reeks.”

Today, I wore my contact lens for the first time in a fortnight.  I also ventured to apply makeup, though not mascara.  I seem to have managed being barefaced and bespectacled without feeling too self-conscious, though I have been asked a couple of times if I’m particularly tired, so it seems that the face-paint is an improvement.  Liberating for once in a way, not caring what I look like.  Not that I’m particularly vain, or I don’t think I am –  that’s probably not true.  We all have our vanities.

Squiffany spent much of the day here.  She caught the sickness bug that’s been going around, but Al and Dilly had an appointment with their solicitor about the buying of their house.   She lay palely in an armchair all morning, but revived by lunchtime and felt well enough to eat, and afterwards to play card and board games with me.  It was really lovely to have her to myself for a while … once she felt better of course, poor little love.  It’s a short-lived bug, only 12 hours – assuming she didn’t succumb again this evening, of course.  Some of Elle’s friends have caught it too, so I hope she doesn’t, nor the Sage and I. She’s due to go and stay with another family on Thursday and we won’t see much of her for the rest of the year.  It’ll be far too quiet, just the Sage and me.

15.  Only a few examples of bullshit English.  I wonder what they are?

4 comments on “The pat test

  1. savannah

    i tried tim’s link using my post from today and here’s my score:

    Your text: 1241 characters, 240 words
    Bullshit Index :0.07
    Your text shows no or marginal indications of ‘bullshit’-English.

    xoxoxox

    (hope Squiffany feels better!)

    Reply
  2. Blue Witch

    Yesterday’s post:

    5671 characters, 1037 words
    Bullshit Index :0.06

    Can’t wait until I get a bullshit letter from a company – i shall run it htrough this andlet them know the score, rather than just complaining that it’s a standard letter full of vacuous waffle.

    Reply
  3. Z

    It’s not perfect, I’ve tried a number of things on it and it hates jargon, reasonably enough, but obfuscation can pass it by as long as it’s in plain-sounding English. However, it’s great fun and does make you look at how you write. Most bloggers speak from the heart so get very low scores. I suspect, though haven’t checked, that words like ‘unfortunately’ bump up the bs register.

    They mention politicians as likely bullshitters, John!

    Reply

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