“The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.”
Walt Whitman, 1819-1892, American Poet
The client said, “We want this to be written at a 10th grade reading level.” I said, “What is a 10th grade reading level and how is it measured?” The customer said, “Hey, can you check the time? I have to go right now.”
Similar experiences on several occasions made me think that people use the phrase reading level not really knowing what it means. They read it somewhere and think they sound smarter if they can include it in the conversation. That sent me on a quest to find out what it means and how it’s measured. This is what I discovered.
First of all, this is an important topic, and one that many clients and the technical writers who work for them don’t fully understand or think about. For highly experienced writers writing for a wide range of audiences, it becomes second nature. They know their audiences. They know how to write in a way that readers can understand. They make adjustments for the specific audience they are writing for. For writers new to the business or with experience writing for a limited audience, it can be a problem when they need to write for an audience they are unfamiliar with.
Then when people say that something is written in a 10th grade reading level target audiences reading ability that concerns us. someone could read “Uber der Welt so hoch” and not yet understand it’s. The goal is to write in a way that the target audience can understand. That means using vocabulary and sentence structure that fits the audience’s reading comprehension level. , is a misnomer. What they really mean is that it is written in the tenth grade. comprehension level or what is called a readability level. It is not
Finally, the good news. Readability can be measured. Experts in the field of linguistics know what a 10th grade readability level is and how it differs from another level. It’s not an exact science, but it’s developed enough that writers can use it to help them hit the target more accurately. We won’t get into the really technical aspects of the topic, but we’ll provide enough background and illustrations so you know how to learn more about it.
Readability Forms
Readability formulas are used to determine if a document is written at the appropriate level of comprehension for the target audience. There are a number of readability formulas used by various language groups. For now, we are going to focus on the Gunning Fog Index because it is one of the most famous and that any writer can use. The index was developed by Robert Gunning in 1952. The basic idea is that the larger the words and the more complex the sentences, the more difficult it is to understand the document. Small words and short sentences are still the easiest to understand.
For convenience, Fox Index levels equate to the number of years of formal education a reader needs to understand the material. Incidentally, this is based on the American system of twelve elementary and secondary school grades with the number of years of college education being thirteen and up. A secondary education is a level 12. A master’s degree would be a level 16.
To put this in perspective, a typical big city newspaper is written at a level 7 or 8. The belief in most industries is that anything above level 12 is too difficult for most readers to understand. . Remember, the Fox Index is not an absolute measure. However, when used on a variety of samples, it is a very good indicator. Here are some Fox Index levels for popular posts.
Monthly Atlantic = 12
news week = 10
Reader Digest = 9
True confessions = 7
Most comics = 6
(This item = 11.6)
The applied fog index
Here is an example of the same information written at two different readability levels as measured by the fog index.
Example one: Untold numbers of eternally optimistic people buy lottery tickets with multimillion-dollar odds against their chances of success. They are sustained by a level of ignorance that prevents them from recognizing that the probability of such an unrealistic eventuality occurring is an order of magnitude beyond their ability to comprehend. They cling to the notion that if an event is possible, it must certainly happen, regardless of how great the statistical odds are against it. His cry is always, “Well, someone has to win,” which is enough to block out even the brightest glare of reason’s cold light.
The level is reached by counting the number of words, the number of sentences, and the number of words three syllables or longer. A formula is then applied which gives the readability index level. In this example, there are 103 words, 4 sentences, and 20 three-syllable words. Using the formula, the fog index level is 18. That means the reader should probably have a Ph.D. to ensure understanding.
Example two: Many people who never give up hope buy lottery tickets even though the odds of ever winning are enormous. What keeps them buying tickets is that they can’t understand that the odds against them are so great that they can’t really hope to win. They believe that because something is possible, then it must happen regardless of the odds against it. Saying, “Well, someone has to win,” is enough to prevent them from seeing the reality of the situation.
Using the same method, the 86 words, 4 sentences, and 6 three-syllable words in this example give a fog index level of 11. That’s a high school student.
now you try
Choose a text sample from a font you are familiar with. It helps if it’s a fairly large block of text. The larger the sample, the more precise the index figure. For example, I selected two blocks of text from the guide that came with my Nikon camera. Follow me through the process:
1. Count the number of words in the sample. If there are hyphenated words, count each part as a word.
(My count: 120) (Your count: )
2. Count the number of prizes in the sample
(My count: 5) (Your count: )
3. Count the number of big words in the sample: 3 or more syllables.
(My count: 3) (Your count: )>
4. Calculate the average sentence length. To do this, divide the number of words by the number of sentences. For example, 120 divided by 5.
(My number: 24) (Your number: )
5. Calculate the percentage of big words. To do this, divide the number of large words by the total number of words. For example, 3 divided by 120 = 0.02 = 2%.
(My number: 2) (Your number: )
6. Add the average sentence length towards % big words.
(My number: 26) (Your number: )
7. Multiply the result by 0.4.
fog index (My level: 10th grade) (Your level: )
now try it on something you have written. Based on what you know about your audience, does your fog index match your readers’ level of comprehension? This is a very important question and this formula can help you answer it.
For more information on readability formulas, use any search engine to find sites related to readability formulas, passive index, Flesch-Kincaid index, or lexical density test.
