5 Minute Tips General Using Readability Statistics | Using Readability Statistics |
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| Monday, 03 March 2008 | |
Imagine for a moment there was a tool that scored your writing for readability. It provided numeric and grade scores. Would you be interested? Whether you’re writing in Microsoft Word or Google Docs these readability statistics provide an easy way to judge your writing. The hardest part is finding the option.
What are Readability StatisticsThe phrase “readability statistics” is a catch-all phrase that varies based on your authoring program. This group includes anything from word counts to a grade level score. Between Microsoft Word and Google Docs, you might see the following document information:
The bolded items above are the items most people are concerned with unless you’re in the business of selling stories by the word. They provide numeric data that measures how easy it is to read your document. These readability metrics provides quick feedback about your writing in relation to your intended audience. Many companies want authors to write to a specific grade level. Another common example is a school textbook, which is written for a specific grade. What are the Common Readability FormulasIf you look at the Wikipedia entry for readability tests, you’ll see entries for nine tests. The ones found in word processors focus on the Flesh Reading Ease and Flesch Kincaid Grade Level scores. Google adds the Automated Readability Index. Many of these formulas are based on weighted combinations of three factors:
Typically each vendor displays your documents statistics in a pop up box for review. What’s interesting is how these two companies can provide different statistics for the same document. The picture below shows the scores for an instructional article I wrote on Microsoft Word and uploaded to Google Docs.  Click to enlarge While I’m perplexed at how my scores differ between these two programs, I’m not going to worry. My guess is the difference has to do with translating one document format to another. My suggestion is to use the same program for your scores. Microsoft Word Readability StatisticsMicrosoft has provided readability statistics in Word for as long as I can remember. The feature has been overlooked by many people because it is an option. Once you enable the option, Microsoft Word will display the results after you finish a spell-check. To set the Readability Statistics option in Word 2003, 1. Open Word. 2. From the Tools menu, select Options… 3. On the Options dialog, click the Spelling & Grammar tab.  Click to enlarge 4. In the lower Grammar section, check the box for Show readability statistics. 5. Click OK. To set the Readability Statistics option in Word 2007, 1. Open Microsoft Word 2007 2. Click the round Office button in the top left. 3. Click the Word Options button in the lower right. 4. In the Word Options dialog, select Proofing from the left column.  Click to enlarge 5. In the When correcting spelling and grammar in Word section, select Show readability statistics. 6. Click OK. Google Docs Readability StatisticsGoogle’s readability statistics are linked to the Word Count option and does not rely on spell checking your document. I suppose savvy computer users would realize the program would show more than a word count as the menu option is followed by three periods. To find readability statistics in Google Docs, 1. Open your document. 2. From the File menu, select Word Count… Other ToolsThere are also tools to analyze the readability of web pages. For these situations, I found Juicy Studio to be one of the best. This is a well documented site that allows you to enter a URL and see the results. The site provides scores from known publications for comparison. As example, this site’s current home page falls between the Reader’s Digest and Time. Readability statistics can be useful in evaluating your writing, but they shouldn’t be the sole criteria for evaluating reading ease. There are many more factors. My web designer friends would tell me the font type plays a role. But if you need to write to a specific grade level, these tools are handy and informative. Related Article |
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 06 May 2008 ) |
