Readability Tests
WORD~
If you have a version of Microsoft Word for Windows, you can use it to determine the readability level of text. You will need to enter several passages of at least 100 words each.
  1. on the Tools menu, click Options;
  2. click the Spelling and Grammar tab;
  3. check Check Grammar with spelling;
  4. check Show readability statistics;
  5. run the spellcheck (as you go through the text, allow Word to correct spellings by all means, but you should be able to Ignore comments on grammar, unless it picks up a genuine mistake you missed, rather than an aspect of your style)

When you have completed the check, a message box like the one below will appear:

  • Press Alt+Print Scrn
  • Click OK
  • Move the insertion point to the end of your document
  • Press Ctrl+V
  • Save the document
  • You now have the document saved together with the readability statistics.
Interpreting the statistics:

When Word finishes checking spelling and grammar, it can display information about the reading level of the document, including the following readability scores. Each readability score bases its rating on the average number of syllables per word and words per sentence.

  • Flesch Reading Ease score
    Rates text on a 100-point scale; the higher the score, the easier it is to understand the document. For most standard documents, aim for a score of approximately 60 to 70.
  • Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score
    Rates text on a U.S. grade-school level. For example, a score of 8.0 means that an eighth grader can understand the document. For most standard documents, aim for a score of approximately 7.0 to 8.0.

Source:

Gunning-Fog Index~

The following is the algorithm to determine the Gunning-Fog index.

* Calculate the average number of words you use per sentence.

* Calculate the percentage of difficult words in the sample (words with three or more syllables).

* Add the totals together, and multiply the sum by 0.4.

* (average_words_sentence+number_words_three_syllables) x 0.4

The result is your Gunning-Fog index, which is a rough measure of how many years of schooling it would take someone to understand the content. The lower the number, the more understandable the content will be to your visitors. Results over seventeen are reported as seventeen, where seventeen is considered post-graduate level.

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