Document Readability
This is a fun little test of your writing. The site explains it thusly:
This free online software tool calculates readability : Coleman Liau index, Flesch Kincaid Grade Level, ARI (Automated Readability Index), SMOG. The measure of readability used here is the indication of number of years of education that a person needs to be able to understand the text easily on the first reading. Comprehension tests and skills training. [...] In general, these tests penalize writers for polysyllabic words and long, complex sentences.
I ran a few blog entries that are devoid of quotes from other sources through the tool and came up with the following:
Gunning Fog index : 9.25
Flesch Reading Ease : 61.77
Gunning Fog index : 9.75
Flesch Reading Ease : 62.46
Gunning Fog index : 11.20
Flesch Reading Ease : 57.80
Gunning Fog index : 11.22
Flesch Reading Ease : 59.79
Gunning Fog index : 8.22
Flesch Reading Ease : 68.92
When running a few of my short stories though the tool, it scored even higher on average. I don't place too much importance in such a rating, especially considering the rather unstructured, rambling nature of a blog. It is very interesting though.
To compare, I placed an excerpt from Winnie the Pooh and Through the Looking Glass into the tool and got the following results, respectively:
Gunning Fog index : 7.41
Flesch Reading Ease : 81.70
Gunning Fog index : 6.57
Flesch Reading Ease : 76.02
This free online software tool calculates readability : Coleman Liau index, Flesch Kincaid Grade Level, ARI (Automated Readability Index), SMOG. The measure of readability used here is the indication of number of years of education that a person needs to be able to understand the text easily on the first reading. Comprehension tests and skills training. [...] In general, these tests penalize writers for polysyllabic words and long, complex sentences.
I ran a few blog entries that are devoid of quotes from other sources through the tool and came up with the following:
Gunning Fog index : 9.25
Flesch Reading Ease : 61.77
Gunning Fog index : 9.75
Flesch Reading Ease : 62.46
Gunning Fog index : 11.20
Flesch Reading Ease : 57.80
Gunning Fog index : 11.22
Flesch Reading Ease : 59.79
Gunning Fog index : 8.22
Flesch Reading Ease : 68.92
When running a few of my short stories though the tool, it scored even higher on average. I don't place too much importance in such a rating, especially considering the rather unstructured, rambling nature of a blog. It is very interesting though.
To compare, I placed an excerpt from Winnie the Pooh and Through the Looking Glass into the tool and got the following results, respectively:
Gunning Fog index : 7.41
Flesch Reading Ease : 81.70
Gunning Fog index : 6.57
Flesch Reading Ease : 76.02