IsolateCyclist

Bicycling does not seem to be a difficult subject to understand. Nonetheless, most blogs are written on a third grade level (which — for my non-American readers — is one of the earliest school grades in the U.S.) — and for good reason. Many Americans can’t read beyond a third grade level.

As a writer of literature and a philosopher, my blog often presents complex concepts and uses big words which most editors would delete since a child could not understand them. But, since the vast majority of my readers are highly intelligent and often well educated, my choice of writing style is not a problem for them.

A couple of days ago I wrote a post about drivers who drift all the way over to the fog line — the white line on the right-hand side of the road that signifies the border of the travel lane. In the U.S. it is illegal to cross that line, which I pointed out.

Even though I went to great pains to make it clear where this line was and what the laws were regarding this line, I did use the word “demarcate” (definition: set, mark or draw the boundaries of something) to indicate that this line was the border between the legal travel lane and the shoulder of the road where it is illegal to drive. Most third graders, who are generally 8 or 9 years old, would be unfamiliar with this word. Then again, my blog is written for adults, so I did not think that using adult words to describe the concept I was writing about would be a problem.    Continue reading ….