【工具篇】Acrolinx

Acrolinx是一款语法与写作风格检查工具。我待过的两家美企，都使用它作为把关publication质量的最后一环--文档提交前，必须跑Acrolinx，达到一定分数才能release。它会给出提升文档质量的多方面分数，并给出修改建议，对养成简洁写作风格有一定帮助。

对比Grammarly，我觉得Acrolinx在语法检查与提升语言准确性方面比Grammarly逊色，但在写作风格检查与术语一致性方面，有优势（大概是因为企业可以在服务器端自建术语库吧）。

Acrolinx scorecard

列出以下几点帮助我养成了几点重要写作习惯的方面：

Clarity

Flesch Reading Ease Score （阅读难易度）

Flesch Reading Ease is a classic readability metric. It’s probably the most commonly cited and used of all of them. It uses the sentence length (number of words per sentence) and the number of syllables per word. The scores are generally between 0 and 100. You can interpret the values as follows. (See also Flesch, Rudolf, How to Write Plain English, University of Canterbury.)

90-100  Very Easy  80-90 Easy    70-80 Fairly Easy  60-70 Standard  50-60 Fairly Difficult  30-50 Difficult    0-30 Very Difficult

Here in Citrix, we have a maximum sentence length of 28 words.

Scannability

Structure （Guideline Group: Content Structure）

It is much easier to scan content if your content has a clear structure. Adding titles, subtitles, lists, and images helps make content eye-catching and easy to read.

Short First Paragraph （Guideline Group: Paragraphs）

Consider shortening the first paragraph. Aim for no more than 3 sentences.

Too Many List Items （Guideline Group: Lists）

These lists are long. To avoid overwhelming the reader, consider limiting each of them to 5 items or fewer. This guideline is not applicable to Word and PowerPoint.

Tone

Informality Index

The Informality index tells you how informal your text is. Informal writing sounds a lot like speaking. It’s relaxed and colloquial.

On the formal end of the spectrum would typically be legal papers or official government documents. The index looks at the numbers of pronouns relative to the number of nouns and adjectives, as well as specific expressions or sentence fragments. The result ranges between 0 and 100. You can interpret the values as follows:

80-100 Friendly  60-80 Informal  40-60 Neutral  20-40 Formal  0-20 Stiff

Liveliness Index

The Liveliness index tells you how lively your content is. Acrolinx recognizes content with a lot of questions, exclamations, and quotations as lively. Addressing the reader also lifts the index, as does referring to yourself. Your Liveliness index will drop if you use passive tense or certain dull expressions. The index ranges between 0 and 100. You can interpret the value as follows:

80-100 Lively 60-80 Engaging  40-60 Neutral  20-40 On the dry side  0-20 Dull

Here in Citrix, there are blocks on PRs based on Acrolinx scores (以下两条达不到一定分数要求，Pull Request就不能Pass):

-  The minimum required Correctness score is 85

-  The minimum required Clarity score is 80