Would You Like to Test Your Readability Level
Following is a list ofthings to do to see at what grade level you write. Take one of yourlatest writing assignments or blog posts and do the following:
1 Count out 100 words
2 Count the number ofsentences in the body of the 100 words
3 Divide the words bythe number of sentences to determine average length of sentence
4 Count the number ofwords that contain 3 or more syllables
Do not includecompound words, i.e. man-made or handmade
Do not includeproper nouns, i.e. names of people or places or things that must be
capitalized
Do not include verbsmade into three syllables by adding es, ed or ing
5 Divvide the number oflong words by the passage length (100 words)
the answer is thepercentage of long words
6 Add the averagesentence length (answer to no. 3) to the percentage of long words
7 Multiply the totalfrom no. 6 by 0.4 to determine your grade level of the writing for
your passage
An eBook I Wrote
I checked one of my eBooks, and the readability was 7th grade level. I have written at that level for so long--that's the average grade level, 7-8, on which people read--that I really have to think about my choice of vocabulary whenever I wish to raise the readability level for a different audience.. Newspapers and most magazines are written at the 7-8 grade level.
Your Score
Post your readability level in a reply to this post. I would venture to say that most of your posts are on the 7-8 grade level. So don't be alarmed if your scores fall into that range. That is where you want to write unless you know that your target audience is further advanced. If that be the case, you can use the following to provide a higher level of readability for your sophisticated audience.
Raise Readability Levelsby:
Use more multi-syllabicwords
Use compound-complexsentences
Use a semi-colon (;) tojoin two sentences of a closely related nature so that you only haveone sentence
If you have questions regarding, don't hesitate to contact me either here by using the "reply" or you can PM me. Blessings!
Recent Comments
11
I knew that this type of assessment was possible. but had never 'got around' to checking out how! So many thanks for plonking the 'how' under my nose! No excuse now... off to check my writing out! Sue :)
You brought up an important topic, Howard, I've used a similar tool in the past, but I had forgotten about checking readability, so thank you for bringing the subject up again. It's the little things. They really add up.
This is pretty cool. I did one of my post the first 100 words gave me grade 4. The 100 words gave me grade 5. I am not sure if this is good or not. It does mean that just about anybody will understand what I have written, but should I strive for a 7-8th-grade level?
Also, since I get different grade levels with in the first 200 words is there a recommendation as to where in an article you should start you measuring?
The answer to all your questions are "no." Writing at the 4th or 5th grade level assures that your audience will most definitely understand your message. If you were writing to professional people such as doctors or lawyers or other medical staff, you might be concerned. There is no particular area of the page where you should begin.
Thanks so much for sharing! If you have other questions, please do not hesitate to ask. I did give a way for one to raise his readability level at the end of the post.
That's really neat! I am going to play with that a bit...
I tested my site, which came back as grade 4. I guess that's good, as I was hoping to make it easily-understood. Then just for fun, I entered the prologue of one of my novellas and it came back as grade 9..
Hey Craig,
Looks like you are right on target in both areas. My novels follow the same level as my blog posts. I do, however, use a few more 3 to 4 syllable words along with varied sentence structure. Thanks for sharing!
I apologize for the words that are run together above. I copied this from another works, and the formatting apparently was not the same. When I edited the article for mistakes before I published it, the words were not run together.
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Good one mind excercise as must have time
Thanks for sharing.