Combining elegance and readability: Walker Gibson´s tough, sweet, and stuffy

The author suggests that answers to some of the more difficult questions in the readability-formula debate may be found in W. Gibson´s book, Tough, Sweet, and Stuffy (1966). Gibson, in his analysis of style, develops a set of quantifiable characteristics of language that will produce tough talkers, sweet talkers, and stuffy talkers. In specifically analyzing these three familiar American voices, he is able to combine two necessary attributes of readability for technical communicators: a set of specific rules and a rationale for applying them, providing another slant on the readability issue.