The limits of Rewordify.com

Every once in a while, we get an email from a user that asks things like:

• Why won't Rewordify.com reword my text to a certain grade level? (or)
• Why doesn't Rewordify.com reword this word or that word?

Rewordify.com knows over 40,000 difficult words and phrases, and we add new words and phrases to it almost every day. Also, we frequently make the site "smarter" at figuring out how hard words and phrases are used, so they're replaced with language that sounds natural and is easy to understand.

You also get our exclusive READ level (Rewordify.com Estimated Average Difficulty level), a highly valid measure of text complexity that works the same way as (and is strongly correlated to) the Lexile measure.

Sometimes these things work together beautifully, and sometimes they fall short. This is because working with language is terrifically difficult for computers, and no computer can come close to a human being's ability to figure out how hard a passage is, or how to re-state something more easily.

The limits of a computer

Computers think that this passage is easy to understand (READ 430, Lexile 480L):

Those who know the breath of forever know the crying of the Earth. They know the wall that is tomorrow. They know the sad waving of the tree branch. They know the pain of the dusty ebony sky.

Computers also think that this passage is many grade levels more difficult (READ 1390, Lexile 1050L):

The shocked policeman saw the alien whisk the surprised boy into the spaceship. The policeman sneaked down the hillside, through a maze of young maple trees, closer to the unlucky spot.

Rewordify.com can't simplify the first passage. It doesn't know why the Earth is crying.

The site can't simplify the second passage. It doesn't contain any difficult words, except maybe whisk, but eggs can be whisked as well as people, and we don't want to say that the boy was beaten.

Technical terms and troublesome words

Here's another example of a challenge for the site:

Washington applauded the conservative approach within Rickerson's organic Renaissance work.

A computer can't know that Washington means important scientists in Washington, D.C. Words like conservative and organic have multiple meanings that can be challenging to figure out. Also, Renaissance is a complex topic that can't be summarized in a few words.

The site can help!

The moral of this story? Although we make Rewordify.com better nearly every day, no computer can replace a teacher. But, Rewordify.com is a great learning tool that can empower independent learning when a teacher isn't around. Feel free to explore the site, learn how it can help, and contact us with any questions or suggestions.