New "Word Bank" learning tools!

We just added a printable Word Bank option and an on-screen Word Bank learning activity.

The great thing about the on-screen Word Bank activity is that the user has to type in the difficult words to show the computer that he or she knows them. Typing in this way reinforces learning.

To use these tools, rewordify any difficult text, scroll down, and you'll see the buttons for these new activities under the Learning Tools area of the screen:








Questions? Post a comment on this blog entry and we'll answer it quickly. Or you can contact us privately.

Get the bookmarklet!

We just added a Rewordify.com bookmarklet to the site, which lets you rewordify almost any web page with one click! A bookmarklet is a cool little object that makes most web browsers a little smarter, and it's easy to create. Here's how to get your Rewordify.com bookmarklet:

  1. Go to the home page and scroll down to the bottom.
  2. You'll see the link "One-Click Learning." Click it.
  3. Follow the instructions on the page.
  4. When you're done, you'll see an entry in your browser favorites that says "Rewordify!"
You're done!

Now, whenever you're on a difficult web page, you just click the "Rewordify!" link and the whole web page will be instantly simplified. It's the quickest possible way to understand more of what you read!

Site upgrade on 9/15/2013

Rewordify.com received some great new features over the weekend. The best way to experience them is to do the new demo on the home page. Here's what we did:

New Feature: Save Link To Text Passage

Description: When you rewordify a text passage, you can get a link to the result. Anyone with that link can then view that text passage.

Benefit: Easy coordination and control of learning. Teachers can save text passages to a unique link, and share that link with learners throughout the world. All learners with that link see the exact same passage in Rewordify.com.

New Feature: Learn from a web page

Description: When viewing a rewordified web page, there's a new "Learn" link that appears at the top left. Clicking that link causes all the hard words in the web page to be extracted to Rewordify.com, for easy access to learning activities. The word list can be saved using the Save Link to Text Passage feature!

Benefit: Easy to use a high-interest web page as a source for learning.

 

Improved Feature: Faster Settings Change

Description: When changing settings, clicking "Save Settings" at the bottom now immediately takes you back to the previous page and re-displays the content with the new display settings. Prior to this, you had to click a "go back" link and click "Refresh," which sometimes required you to click another dialog box.

Benefit: Saves time. It now takes one click to save settings and see the result, instead of three or four.

Improved Feature: Better Rewordified Text Results Screen

Description: When rewordifying text, the result page has more information presented in a more organized, colorful, intuitive manner that allows you to better see information and use Learning Tools with fewer clicks.

Benefit: Saves time, improved site usability.

Bug Fixes:

  • Screen used to jump down to the yellow text entry box when showing rewordified text, which was annoying. This has been fixed.
  • Home page now shows an easier-to-understand message when you try to rewordify nothing.
  • A small number of rewordified words with apostrophes would not display correctly when clicked on. This has been fixed.

Sample Difficult Web Page

You'll see this page when you do the demo on the main page of Rewordify.com.

The Tell-Tale Heart
by Edgar Allan Poe

TRUE! nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why WILL you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How then am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily, how calmly, I can tell you the whole story.
It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain, but, once conceived, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture -- a pale blue eye with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me my blood ran cold, and so by degrees, very gradually, I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye for ever.

Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded -- with what caution -- with what foresight, with what dissimulation, I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him. And every night about midnight I turned the latch of his door and opened it oh, so gently! And then, when I had made an opening sufficient for my head, I put in a dark lantern all closed, closed so that no light shone out, and then I thrust in my head. Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust it in! I moved it slowly, very, very slowly, so that I might not disturb the old man's sleep. It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed. Ha! would a madman have been so wise as this? And then when my head was well in the room I undid the lantern cautiously -- oh, so cautiously -- cautiously (for the hinges creaked), I undid it just so much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye. And this I did for seven long nights, every night just at midnight, but I found the eye always closed, and so it was impossible to do the work, for it was not the old man who vexed me but his Evil Eye. And every morning, when the day broke, I went boldly into the chamber and spoke courageously to him, calling him by name in a hearty tone, and inquiring how he had passed the night. So you see he would have been a very profound old man, indeed , to suspect that every night, just at twelve, I looked in upon him while he slept.

Upon the eighth night I was more than usually cautious in opening the door. A watch's minute hand moves more quickly than did mine. Never before that night had I felt the extent of my own powers, of my sagacity. I could scarcely contain my feelings of triumph. To think that there I was opening the door little by little, and he not even to dream of my secret deeds or thoughts. I fairly chuckled at the idea, and perhaps he heard me, for he moved on the bed suddenly as if startled. Now you may think that I drew back -- but no. His room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness (for the shutters were close fastened through fear of robbers), and so I knew that he could not see the opening of the door, and I kept pushing it on steadily, steadily.

I had my head in, and was about to open the lantern, when my thumb slipped upon the tin fastening , and the old man sprang up in the bed, crying out, "Who's there?"

I kept quite still and said nothing. For a whole hour I did not move a muscle, and in the meantime I did not hear him lie down. He was still sitting up in the bed, listening; just as I have done night after night hearkening to the death watches in the wall.

Presently, I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan of mortal terror. It was not a groan of pain or of grief -- oh, no! It was the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe. I knew the sound well. Many a night, just at midnight, when all the world slept, it has welled up from my own bosom, deepening, with its dreadful echo, the terrors that distracted me. I say I knew it well. I knew what the old man felt, and pitied him although I chuckled at heart. I knew that he had been lying awake ever since the first slight noise when he had turned in the bed. His fears had been ever since growing upon him. He had been trying to fancy them causeless, but could not. He had been saying to himself, "It is nothing but the wind in the chimney, it is only a mouse crossing the floor," or, "It is merely a cricket which has made a single chirp." Yes he has been trying to comfort himself with these suppositions ; but he had found all in vain. ALL IN VAIN, because Death in approaching him had stalked with his black shadow before him and enveloped the victim. And it was the mournful influence of the unperceived shadow that caused him to feel, although he neither saw nor heard, to feel the presence of my head within the room.
When I had waited a long time very patiently without hearing him lie down, I resolved to open a little -- a very, very little crevice in the lantern. So I opened it -- you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily -- until at length a single dim ray like the thread of the spider shot out from the crevice and fell upon the vulture eye.

It was open, wide, wide open, and I grew furious as I gazed upon it. I saw it with perfect distinctness -- all a dull blue with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones, but I could see nothing else of the old man's face or person, for I had directed the ray as if by instinct precisely upon the damned spot.

And now have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses? now, I say, there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew that sound well too. It was the beating of the old man's heart. It increased my fury as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage.

But even yet I refrained and kept still. I scarcely breathed. I held the lantern motionless. I tried how steadily I could maintain the ray upon the eye. Meantime the hellish tattoo of the heart increased. It grew quicker and quicker, and louder and louder, every instant. The old man's terror must have been extreme! It grew louder, I say, louder every moment! -- do you mark me well? I have told you that I am nervous: so I am. And now at the dead hour of the night, amid the dreadful silence of that old house, so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror. Yet, for some minutes longer I refrained and stood still. But the beating grew louder, louder! I thought the heart must burst. And now a new anxiety seized me -- the sound would be heard by a neighbour! The old man's hour had come! With a loud yell, I threw open the lantern and leaped into the room. He shrieked once -- once only. In an instant I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him. I then smiled gaily, to find the deed so far done. But for many minutes the heart beat on with a muffled sound. This, however, did not vex me; it would not be heard through the wall. At length it ceased. The old man was dead. I removed the bed and examined the corpse. Yes, he was stone, stone dead. I placed my hand upon the heart and held it there many minutes. There was no pulsation. He was stone dead. His eye would trouble me no more.

If still you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body. The night waned, and I worked hastily, but in silence.
I took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber, and deposited all between the scantlings. I then replaced the boards so cleverly so cunningly, that no human eye -- not even his -- could have detected anything wrong. There was nothing to wash out -- no stain of any kind -- no blood-spot whatever. I had been too wary for that.

When I had made an end of these labours, it was four o'clock -- still dark as midnight. As the bell sounded the hour, there came a knocking at the street door. I went down to open it with a light heart, -- for what had I now to fear? There entered three men, who introduced themselves, with perfect suavity, as officers of the police. A shriek had been heard by a neighbour during the night; suspicion of foul play had been aroused; information had been lodged at the police office, and they (the officers) had been deputed to search the premises.

I smiled, -- for what had I to fear? I bade the gentlemen welcome. The shriek, I said, was my own in a dream. The old man, I mentioned, was absent in the country. I took my visitors all over the house. I bade them search -- search well. I led them, at length, to his chamber. I showed them his treasures, secure, undisturbed. In the enthusiasm of my confidence, I brought chairs into the room, and desired them here to rest from their fatigues, while I myself, in the wild audacity of my perfect triumph, placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim.

The officers were satisfied. My MANNER had convinced them. I was singularly at ease. They sat and while I answered cheerily, they chatted of familiar things. But, ere long, I felt myself getting pale and wished them gone. My head ached, and I fancied a ringing in my ears; but still they sat, and still chatted. The ringing became more distinct : I talked more freely to get rid of the feeling: but it continued and gained definitiveness -- until, at length, I found that the noise was NOT within my ears.

No doubt I now grew VERY pale; but I talked more fluently, and with a heightened voice. Yet the sound increased -- and what could I do? It was A LOW, DULL, QUICK SOUND -- MUCH SUCH A SOUND AS A WATCH MAKES WHEN ENVELOPED IN COTTON. I gasped for breath, and yet the officers heard it not. I talked more quickly, more vehemently but the noise steadily increased. I arose and argued about trifles, in a high key and with violent gesticulations; but the noise steadily increased. Why WOULD they not be gone? I paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides, as if excited to fury by the observations of the men, but the noise steadily increased. O God! what COULD I do? I foamed -- I raved -- I swore! I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting, and grated it upon the boards, but the noise arose over all and continually increased. It grew louder -- louder -- louder! And still the men chatted pleasantly , and smiled. Was it possible they heard not? Almighty God! -- no, no? They heard! -- they suspected! -- they KNEW! -- they were making a mockery of my horror! -- this I thought, and this I think. But anything was better than this agony! Anything was more tolerable than this derision! I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt that I must scream or die! -- and now -- again -- hark! louder! louder! louder! LOUDER! --

"Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! -- tear up the planks! -- here, here! -- it is the beating of his hideous heart!"

What's New!

10/29/2013:
  • The "Add List" and the "Skip List" on the settings page now display a counter to let you know how many characters are left in those fields. The current limit is 2000 characters. If you find you need more space, contact us.
10/25/2013:
  • We added some great books to our "Read" page. More info.
  • We changed the name of some of our settings to make them clearer. "Loud" is now "Highlight," "Reverse Loud" is now "Reverse Highlight," etc.
  • We updated the Rewordifying Engine.
10/19/2013:
  • You can now synchronize all your custom settings, including your Skip List and Add List, so you can use them on other computers. This lets all your students quickly set their computers with your custom word lists and highlighting settings, for a consistent learning experience. Here's how.
  • We updated the Rewordifying Engine.
  • Please tell us how we can make Rewordify.com better. We love to hear from you.
10/14/2013:

We've been busy making Rewordify.com even better!
  • New feature: the "Add List." You can now add your own customized list of words and definitions to the site. All words you add on a particular computer will be included in the Rewordifying Engine for that computer. The word list you add will only work on the computer to which you add the words. It's a great way to help tailor the site to the needs of your learners. Try it out now.
  • Better Reading Level Accuracy: We improved the way that we calculate Reading Level to include average sentence length. There's a lot more information in this .pdf document.
  • More Text Information: When you rewordify a block of text, you can now see text stats and Reading Levels of the original and rewordified text.
  • Sentence Separation: Rewordify.com tries to separate certain longer sentences into two shorter sentences, as long as the meaning isn't changed significantly. It does this to try to improve the readability of the passage it rewordifies. Read more here.
  • Improved Rewordifying Engine. We added over 100 new words to the Rewordifying Engine and improved dozens of existing definitions.
10/10/2013:
  • Refined the definitions of over 150 words
  • Fixed bug in On-Screen Word Bank that prevented it from working well on certain devices
  • Updated Rewordifying Engine so that it would be better at figuring out which Capitalized Words in the Middle Of Sentences Like This were names that should not be rewordified and which were Capitalized Nouns and Titles Of Films, etc., that should be rewordified.
09/28/2013:
  • Shortened and simplified the "Details" page with a new "How to..." section at the top.
  • Improved the Rewordifying Engine when capitalized difficult words are in the middle of sentences. Documents like the Declaration of Independence should now have a more complete and accurate translation.
09/25/2013:
  • Bug fix: when browsing a large number of web sites, you may have gotten a "Bad Request" because of a cookie error. This should no longer happen.
  • We added our first lesson plan on the newly-renamed educator page. Try it out in your classroom and let us know how we can improve it.
  • We made dozens of definition refinements and added hundreds more words to the Rewordifying Engine, for more accurate translations.
09/19/2013:
  • Over 540 new words added to the Rewordifying Engine, and dozens of definitions were refined and updated.
  • Shakespeare's Hamlet and Romeo & Juliet have much more detailed and accurate translations; over 1,500 difficult words and phrases are simplified in those two plays. More of Shakespeare's plays will get an even more detailed and accurate translation very soon. Here's the classic literature link; scroll down to "Shakespeare, complete works."

09/15/2013:
09/11/2013:
  • Significantly improved the appearance of the links at the bottom of the page
  • Added words to and refined the Rewordifying Engine

09/10/2013:
  • Updated Rewordifying Engine with approx. 40 new words and 10 refined definitions
  • Updated 2 videos on YouTube channel

Example of difficult article

Rewordify.com makes it easy for web site owners and bloggers to put a link on their pages that instantly takes readers to a simpler version that helps them learn.

Here's an example of some difficult text. It's the exciting scene when Frankenstein comes face-to-face with the monster he created. Many people struggle with this difficult language, but clicking this little link simplifies the whole page and helps people learn from it:


"Devil," I exclaimed, "do you dare approach me? And do not you fear the fierce vengeance of my arm wreaked on your miserable head? Begone, vile insect! Or rather, stay, that I may trample you to dust! And, oh! That I could, with the extinction of your miserable existence, restore those victims whom you have so diabolically murdered!"

"I expected this reception," said the daemon. "All men hate the wretched; how, then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us. You purpose to kill me. How dare you sport thus with life? Do your duty towards me, and I will do mine towards you and the rest of mankind. If you will comply with my conditions, I will leave them and you at peace; but if you refuse, I will glut the maw of death, until it be satiated with the blood of your remaining friends."

"Abhorred monster! Fiend that thou art! The tortures of hell are too mild a vengeance for thy crimes. Wretched devil! You reproach me with your creation, come on, then, that I may extinguish the spark which I so negligently bestowed."

My rage was without bounds; I sprang on him, impelled by all the feelings which can arm one being against the existence of another.

--Mary Shelley, Frankenstein 
You can help improve the readership of your blog or web page by adding the same kind of link. Here's how to do it. It's totally free! If you have any questions, please post a comment or contact us.

Get more viewers on your blog or web site

Rewordify.com makes it easy for you to get more viewers on your blog or web site.

All you do is add one little link to your article or online content, and viewers instantly see a simplified version of your content. It's quick and completely free, and it makes your content accessible to millions of readers who might be intimidated by the hard language on your site.

Here's a video that explains more:




You can read a step-by-step guide here.

The challenge and fun of Rewordo

We just published a fun vocabulary game called Rewordo.

It's the hardest vocabulary game on the Internet, and it's going through the roof in popularity.

Rewordo pits you against our Rewordifying Engine, which knows over 35,000 of the most difficult words and phrases in English. You're faced with 20 hard words and phrases, one at a time. For each hard word or phrase, you have to pick the closest meaning from four choices. The object of the game is to get as many questions correct as quickly as possible.

You start with 1000 points. You lose 10 points for each second that goes by, and 50 points for each wrong answer. It's very difficult to get over 500 points, and anything over 250 points is impressive.

Play it now, and get hooked.

How to use Flash Cards

We just introduced a great new feature: flash cards!

he abstain'd from and usurp'st is on't and his distress'd and wat'ry eyes.

Whenever you rewordify a text passage that has between 1 and 100 hard words and phrases, you'll see a button that says "Get flash cards." Click it and you'll be taken to a fast, easy to use set of flash cards. Here's what they look like:

The cards show the hard word and definition at once by default. Uncheck "Two sided cards" to see the "front" and "back" of the card. Click the card to "flip" it.

When you uncheck "Two sided cards" you'll see another checkbox that lets you choose whether you see the term or definition first as you move through the stack of cards. Choose whichever option helps you learn best.

If you know a term, click "Remove card" so you focus your mental efforts on what you don't know. 

When you think you know all the cards, click the "Take a quiz!" button to see how well you know them.

The Flash Cards feature works well on any computer, tablet, or smartphone. Here's a video that shows how it works: