The E-Sylum:  Volume 6, Number 39, September 28, 2003, Article 17

WORD FUN, REVISITED

   I was hoping to let it drop, but we've had some responses
   about the letter order item published earlier.  For example,
   Ron Haller-Williams writes:

   "This appears to be a spoof.  Please refer to
   http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/thisweek/story/0,12977,1048638,00.html

   where a fuller analysis appears.  I quote selectively:

   "The ease might be illusory. Or even ilosruly.  ...  Scrambled
   words can be hard to read.

   Martin Turner of the Dyslexia Institute says. "There is a
   spectrum of truth here, and that is towards the lower end,
   because actually sequence is about the only thing that is
   important."

   In experiments young children can still read words disguised
   with so-called format distortion - alternating letters in capitals,
   lower case, superscript and subscript ... to disguise the
   lettering - but what throws them is a change in the sequence
   of letters. In fact, the exact way in which the letters are
   scrambled can be extremely significant. For example, with
   plurals, leaving the "s" at the end, but not the letter that should
   have preceded it, can make  the word hard to decipher.

   "All you need to do is try and read that email," says Turner.
   "Immediately, you discover it is quite difficult to read. And
   secondly, you get very fed up with it after two or three sentences.
   What you have done is put yourself in the position of a dyslexic
   or poor reader, who loses interest jolly quickly.  Motivation
   slumps and it is quite an aversive experience. I got that email ...
   and wrote back commenting that it was hard work, and aversive.
   After a while, I thought: do I really want to do this?  Why don't
   I look out the window ...?"

   Try this one, which should be "familiar" territory to all of us:
   Mnay naiimmssttus saceeiilpse, smoe in paaaciimmnrstua or
   schiiloppry.  Cdenors are failry palopur, aghlotuh nemoruus
   eahinssttus cabeelrte caaciissl seeirs, icdilnnug Saaainssn and
    paeilmotc.  If you fnid tihs ibegillle or eceeilssvxy adourus,
    reeqsut silnootus form ddeeiorrsd at hardslater.u-net.com

   "Ralond Helalr-Walilims", actual e-mail
   disordered at heraldstar.u-net.com."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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