What’s Your Readability Score?
Is your writing consistent?
Being consistent helps your readers understand your messages, and gives them an appropriate level of expectation. These are important considerations in all business writing projects.
Using a readability index is the quickest and easiest way to bring a strong measure of consistency to your writing. A readability index measures how easy it is to read and understand what you’ve written. Normally, it’s measured in grades, as in Grades 1 through 12 in North American high schools.
For example, the original draft of this article scored 9.08 on the Flesch Kincaid Grade level index. In other words, a person with a Grade 9 education should be able to understand it. Other indexes might give a different score, but generally they will be in the same range.
It costs nothing except a bit of your time to get readability tests. Start by checking your word processor. If it doesn’t include one, check online. Simply visit your favorite search engine and type in the words “online readability” or “online readability tests”. You should find a number of them.
Most scoring programs and services will give you more than a readability score. Usually they provide information about the average length of words and sentences, and what proportion of your verbs are passive. That’s important, because this information will help you bring down your score. Bring down the grade level by shortening sentences and replacing longer words with shorter words. For even more readability, replace passive verbs with active verbs.
You have lots of choices, and they’ll all give you roughly the same score. Use the one that’s most convenient, or best fits your writing aims.
There is no perfect score; it generally depends on your audience. If you’re writing for professionals, for example, it may be okay for your score may come in high. If you’re writing for a general audience, aim for Grade 12 or lower. A few grades lower would be even better, of course.
Once you’ve found a readability scoring program or service you like, use it regularly, to build consistency. If your scores come in too high, shorten sentences and shorten words until the score is where you want it. Over time, of course, you’ll find it easier and easier to hit the grade level you need. At the same time, you’ll be increasing your communication skills and helping your readers, too.
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