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If you let MS Word check a document’s spelling and grammar, when it reaches the end of your document, it provides various statistics including two readability scores so you can avoid the maths.

Readability scores

There are many factors which affect any reader's comprehension of what you write. Various means of measuring readability have been developed.

These are not 'quality measures' but related to the 'reading age' of the text. If you want to see who is likely to understand what you are writing, try one of the indexes below.

Fog Index
UK newspapers employ the Fog Index (FI) when sub-editing pieces for inclusion. To estimate the FI:

1. Select a passage with about a hundred words. Count the word - C.
2. Find the average sentence length (ASL) by dividing the number of words in the passage by the number of sentences - S . ASL=C/S
3. Count the affixes - A. (An affix is a word-part which changes the meaning of the base word. An affix added on the front is called a prefix. An affix then changes the meaning of the base word. (Look for; a- re- de- co- pre- dis- il- mal- sub- in- im- un- ir- anti- counter- bi- tri- quad- dec- centi- mili- sub- trans- super- multi- micro- maxi-) The word can be a noun or verb. When appended to the base word, it is a suffix. ( -y -al -ic -ee -er -man -ian - ant -ist - ish -ity -ior -ent -ation -able - full -ness -less -ment etc)
4. Count the names and personal pronouns - P.
5. Subtract the number of personal references from the number of affixes - (A-P).

Then feed the numbers into the equation:

FI=ASL+(A-P)/ASL

Average Sentence Length plus (Affixes minus Personal pronouns) divided by Average Sentence Length

The scale:

Gunning Fog Index
The Gunning Fog Index formula gives short sentences written in simple English achieve a better score than long sentences written in complicated language

It is a modification of the Fog index counts the number of ‘hard words’, rather than the more complicated affixes. Select a sample and work out the average sentence length. Now count the words with three or more syllables but exclude:

(ASL + HW) X 0.4

(Average Sentence Length plus Hard Words) multiply by .4

The average person reads at level 9. Easy reading range is 6-10 and anything above 15 is getting difficult.

You can avoid the maths involved in working out the index. If you let MS Word check a document’s spelling and grammar, it can work our some readability scores.

MS Word compiles the Average number of Syllables per Word (ASW) and average sentence length  (ASL) which it uses to calculate readability ratings.

Flesch Reading Ease score

206.835 – (1.015 x ASL) – (84.6 x ASW)

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score

(.39 x ASL) + (11.8 x ASW) – 15.59

Making the most of MS 'Word'

Reference:

The Technique of Clear Writing - Gunning (out of print but most college libraries should stock it).

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