What are your readability scores?

[vrabinec]

So a thread on KB got me wondering what my readability score is. Apparently, optimal is 5th grade level. I don't know where the fuck that figure came from, but I think I've seen it before and intuitively it sounds about right. So I dropped part of my first chapter in here:

Readability score

And got:



Reading Ease

A higher score indicates easier readability; scores usually range between 0 and 100.


Readability Formula

Score

Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease 78.2

Grade Levels

A grade level (based on the USA education system) is equivalent to the number of years of education a person has had. A score of around 10-12 is roughly the reading level on completion of high school. Text to be read by the general public should aim for a grade level of around 8.


Readability Formula

Grade

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 5.4
Gunning-Fog Score 8.1
Coleman-Liau Index 9.7
SMOG Index 6
Automated Readability Index 5.1
Average Grade Level 6.9

Text Statistics

Character Count 9,476
Syllable Count 3,002
Word Count 2,188
Sentence Count 177
Characters per Word 4.3
Syllables per Word 1.4
Words per Sentence 12.4



Then I took another sample from the middle of the book:


Reading Ease

A higher score indicates easier readability; scores usually range between 0 and 100.


Readability Formula

Score

Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease 79.9

Grade Levels

A grade level (based on the USA education system) is equivalent to the number of years of education a person has had. A score of around 10-12 is roughly the reading level on completion of high school. Text to be read by the general public should aim for a grade level of around 8.


Readability Formula

Grade

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 5.1
Gunning-Fog Score 7.2
Coleman-Liau Index 8.6
SMOG Index 5.8
Automated Readability Index 4.1
Average Grade Level 6.2

Text Statistics

Character Count 8,266
Syllable Count 2,706
Word Count 1,993
Sentence Count 167
Characters per Word 4.1
Syllables per Word 1.4
Words per Sentence 11.9



Here's the score from an excerpt of The Stand:




Reading Ease

A higher score indicates easier readability; scores usually range between 0 and 100.


Readability Formula

Score

Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease 80.8

Grade Levels

A grade level (based on the USA education system) is equivalent to the number of years of education a person has had. A score of around 10-12 is roughly the reading level on completion of high school. Text to be read by the general public should aim for a grade level of around 8.


Readability Formula

Grade

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 5.3
Gunning-Fog Score 7.2
Coleman-Liau Index 9
SMOG Index 5
Automated Readability Index 5.2
Average Grade Level 6.3

Text Statistics

Character Count 4,840
Syllable Count 1,524
Word Count 1,148
Sentence Count 85
Characters per Word 4.2
Syllables per Word 1.3
Words per Sentence 13.5


Hopefully, that means it's readable to the masses.

[vrabinec]

I put in an excerpt from Howey's Wool. Whew. That's high. He's never gonna sell that thing:


Reading Ease

A higher score indicates easier readability; scores usually range between 0 and 100.


Readability Formula

Score

Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease 71.6

Grade Levels

A grade level (based on the USA education system) is equivalent to the number of years of education a person has had. A score of around 10-12 is roughly the reading level on completion of high school. Text to be read by the general public should aim for a grade level of around 8.


Readability Formula

Grade

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 7.8
Gunning-Fog Score 10
Coleman-Liau Index 10.5
SMOG Index 6.6
Automated Readability Index 8.8
Average Grade Level 8.7

Text Statistics

Character Count 6,054
Syllable Count 1,871
Word Count 1,357
Sentence Count 74
Characters per Word 4.5
Syllables per Word 1.4
Words per Sentence 18.3

[Becca Mills]

I posted this over there:

Passages from my fiction range from 5th- to 9th-grade levels, with dialogue-heavy passages being simpler and narration-heavy ones being more complex. In contrast, my academic writing averages 19th to 20th grade, which is appropriate. It's really all about intended audience.

The average U.S. reading level is 7th/8th grade, so if you're shooting for something that will be not just readable for the average American, but easily readable, 5th/6th grade is probably about right. Only 15% of Americans read at the college undergraduate level, whereas about one-third of Americans have bachelor's degrees, so more than half of degree recipients make it through college without college-level reading skills.

Even keeping my fiction prose pretty straightforward, I do sometimes get "hard to follow" complaints, probably provoked by those 9th-grade passages or by particular vocabulary choices. There's really no way to please everyone. If you really keep everything to 5th-grade level, stronger readers will feel bored or, worse, talked down to. If you bump it up a few notches, weaker readers will sometimes have difficulty following your meaning. There's no way to make your writing perfect for every reader; you have to choose your audience.

[scdaffron]

It's funny this came up here too. I was just reading this article:

contently.com/strategist/2015/01/28/this-surprising-reading-level-analysis-will-change-the-way-you-write/

That prompted me to run an analysis using the Word grammar checker. I ALWAYS have it turned off because I hate it. But I ran it this morning on the manuscript I'm revising, which is 83K.

Apparently my readability is pretty damn easy. 1% passive sentences, 85.6 reading ease and 3.8 grade level.

[Daniel]

I used Word for my stats and checked Vaetra Unveiled and First Moon. I expected First Moon to be more "accessible," and it was, but the two books are surprisingly consistent.

Vaetra Unveiled	First Moon

The stats show that I still have a problem with writing passive sentences, but I do appear to be improving.

Attachments:

[Alan Petersen]

Readability Formula ScoreFlesch-Kincaid Reading Ease 86.1
Average Grade Level 4.9

woo-hoo!

[Becca Mills]

Aug 13, 2015 12:14:15 GMT -5 Daniel said:

I used Word for my stats and checked Vaetra Unveiled and First Moon. I expected First Moon to be more "accessible," and it was, but the two books are surprisingly consistent.

Vaetra Unveiled	First Moon

The stats show that I still have a problem with writing passive sentences, but I do appear to be improving.

Using passive voice is not bad, Daniel. It's only bad when used inappropriately. When used appropriately, it's good.

(See how the last two sentences I wrote keep the focus on passive voice instead of the user of passive voice, who is totally unimportant in this situation because he/she is a hypothetical person? That's the kind of thing passive voice enables. It's a useful tool.)

[Daniel]

Aug 15, 2015 23:39:11 GMT -5 Becca Mills said:

Using passive voice is not bad, Daniel. It's only bad when used inappropriately. When used appropriately, it's good.

(See how the last two sentences I wrote keep the focus on passive voice instead of the user of passive voice, who is totally unimportant in this situation because he/she is a hypothetical person? That's the kind of thing passive voice enables. It's a useful tool.)

Coming from you, that's comforting. It's also the first time I've received an explanation of when passive voice is useful versus bad. I try to apply the mantra, "somebody does something" to my writing so I write more actively. However, that doesn't always work well, as your example demonstrated.

Lately, I'm trying to get away from using forms of "to be." I'm currently reading a book called Chasing Arizona by Ken Lamberton, and I've never seen a better example of how to empower your writing with verbs.

To give you an idea, here's the opening paragraph of the book:

At the beginning of the year, I step onto the dirt track in front of my 1890s stone house and climb the old mule road in Bisbee's Mule Mountains. The road contours Escabrosa Ridge and Banning Creek. Where my route steepens and shrinks to not much more than a footpath, mountain mahogany and iron-hard branches of manzanita encroach. Silverleaf oaks reach out with pale, narrow fingers. A too-early two-tailed swallowtail drifts past my shoulder—Arizona's official butterfly. I take it as a sign.

[carlos]

Readability Formula Score
Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease 78.7
Grade Levels

A random dip into The Visiting Professor (which is probably more dialogue heavy than it should be.) I'm surprised it's so readable. sometimes I have problems understanding what it's all about.

Readability Formula Grade
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 4.4
Gunning-Fog Score 6.5
Coleman-Liau Index 9.3
SMOG Index 5.7
Automated Readability Index 3
Average Grade Level 5.8

Also, I'm a bit suspicious--how come the SMOG level is the same as the grade level--shouldn't somebody in grade 5.8 be emerging from the smog?

[vrabinec]

Aug 17, 2015 11:20:41 GMT -5 carlos said:

Also, I'm a bit suspicious--how come the SMOG level is the same as the grade level--shouldn't somebody in grade 5.8 be emerging from the smog?

That was so bad, I laughed.

[Deano]

These were my results from the first chapter of The Identity Mine:


Reading Ease

A higher score indicates easier readability; scores usually range between 0 and 100.


Readability Formula

Score

Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease 65.5

Grade Levels

A grade level (based on the USA education system) is equivalent to the number of years of education a person has had. A score of around 10-12 is roughly the reading level on completion of high school. Text to be read by the general public should aim for a grade level of around 8.


Readability Formula

Grade

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 10
Gunning-Fog Score 12
Coleman-Liau Index 11.5
SMOG Index 7.6
Automated Readability Index 12.2
Average Grade Level 10.7

Text Statistics

Character Count 7,437
Syllable Count 2,228
Word Count 1,606
Sentence Count 68
Characters per Word 4.6
Syllables per Word 1.4
Words per Sentence 23.6

Interesting stuff! Not sure if I believe it sells more or less books though...

[vrabinec]

10.7? Holy shit, Einstein.

[whdean]

Well, the SMOG and F-K are rules of thumb created for non-experts. Sentence length and syllable count probably correlate in non-fiction for absolute measures of readability, but they say nothing about relative readability of two texts, etc.

I can't say that I've ever used these scales for anything.

[vrabinec]

Aug 17, 2015 13:47:23 GMT -5 whdean said:

I can't say that I've ever used these scales for anything.

I have. In fact, I used them to simplify this post. I was using long words and shit, but cut it down to make it easier to read.

[Becca Mills]

Aug 16, 2015 10:36:28 GMT -5 Daniel said:

Aug 15, 2015 23:39:11 GMT -5 Becca Mills said:

Using passive voice is not bad, Daniel. It's only bad when used inappropriately. When used appropriately, it's good.

(See how the last two sentences I wrote keep the focus on passive voice instead of the user of passive voice, who is totally unimportant in this situation because he/she is a hypothetical person? That's the kind of thing passive voice enables. It's a useful tool.)

Coming from you, that's comforting. It's also the first time I've received an explanation of when passive voice is useful versus bad. I try to apply the mantra, "somebody does something" to my writing so I write more actively. However, that doesn't always work well, as your example demonstrated.

Lately, I'm trying to get away from using forms of "to be." I'm currently reading a book called Chasing Arizona by Ken Lamberton, and I've never seen a better example of how to empower your writing with verbs.

To give you an idea, here's the opening paragraph of the book:

At the beginning of the year, I step onto the dirt track in front of my 1890s stone house and climb the old mule road in Bisbee's Mule Mountains. The road contours Escabrosa Ridge and Banning Creek. Where my route steepens and shrinks to not much more than a footpath, mountain mahogany and iron-hard branches of manzanita encroach. Silverleaf oaks reach out with pale, narrow fingers. A too-early two-tailed swallowtail drifts past my shoulder—Arizona's official butterfly. I take it as a sign.

I love that. I'm not even minding the present tense.

[Daniel]

Aug 17, 2015 21:23:01 GMT -5 Becca Mills said:

I love that. I'm not even minding the present tense.

I see what you did there.

The book is well-written and often amusing, but like Bill Bryson's work, I can only take it in small doses. I generally read at night before going to sleep. For me, there's no better test of pacing than reading while reclined. As much as I'm enjoying Chasing Arizona, it isn't something that keeps me awake for long.

Pacing came up in another thread. I want to write a book that keeps readers engaged until they look up at the clock and are shocked to realize that hours have gone by. Many factors go into making a story that engaging, but pacing seems to be the grease that makes all the other factors function smoothly.