Checking Content Readability

While earning my degree in education, I learned about the Fog Index, Flesch-Kincade, and other ways to measure comprehensibility. This helped us understand how to measure content to determine its reading level.

Along the same lines, Denny Hatch [Link from Cincom Expert Access] introduces colleague Bob Scott. Scott uses Robert Gunning’s Fog formula to make writing clearer and more comprehensible. He explains how to use the formula, which is based on two qualities that Gunning believed important in determining readability:

• Average number of words in a sentence.
• Percentage of “hard” words.

Microsoft Word comes with a feature that calculates readability scores based on Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level. To use it, click “Tools,” “Spelling & Grammar” and ensure there’s a check in the checkbox next to “Show Readbility Statistics.” Run the spellchecker and after it goes through your document, a pop up box appears with the Counts, Averages, and Readability.

I admit I don’t think about this when I write articles. But I would use Word’s tool more often if we could get the readability scores without running the spellchecker. I’d love to have the tool sit on the toolbar next to the word count.

For non-Word documents, Flesh is a freeware Java-based application that calculates Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level. Juicy Studio has an online tool to check a Web site’s readability.

This entry’s Flesch Reading Ease: 50 (easily understood by 6th and 7th graders)

This entry’s Flesch-Kincade Grade Level: 9.8 (probably doesn’t help that I need to use words like “comprehensibility” and “readability.”

University of Texas has a nice table adapted from Flesch’s The Art of Readable Writing showing what the scores mean.