This tool has moved! It's now on its own domain, at Readability-Score.com. (It's also had a small makeover and is now full of speedy AJAXy goodness.)
The code that powers the tool is still available on GitHub.
Text Readability Scores, by Dave Child, was posted on 07 July 2004 and has been tagged with design, language, literature, readability, reference, resources, tool, tools, usability, webdesign and writing.
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Thoughts from a Brighton geek about web development, marketing, freelancing, entrepreneurship and fatherhood. Probably not in that order.
152 Comments
hi! neat script! the layout seems to be broken, though. I get loads of whitespace between the input box of the script and your last paragraph.
on a sidenote, the comment form looks a bit weird as well -- but it's cool :-) // rck
#1, rck, Austria, 2 October 2004. Reply to this.
I find it really pointless.
Replies: #149.
#2, Adam Bouskila, Canada, 5 June 2005. Reply to this.
Fair enough, Adam. Constructive criticism would have been more intelligent and maybe even helpful, but as you've gone down the "pointless confrontational comment" route, I'll reply to what little you've said.
As I said in the article about this, text readability is very difficult to gauge programatically (at least to any degree of accuracy). However, this type of quick test can help to point out to a writer when they are over-complicating things. Some of us are not lucky enough to always write perfectly, and need a little help making sure what we post to the web is easy to read.
#3, Dave Child, United Kingdom, 5 June 2005. Reply to this.
Nice Script Dave. Been looking for something similar for UK gove websites I work for.
BTW your intro text to the script didn't score very well, whereas the previous posters 'I find it really pointless' probably did very well... which i find strangely humourous... any how respect to you again, and where can i get my hands on this script? Theres some councilspeak out there I gotta deal with.
Paul
#4, Paulg, France, 29 July 2005. Reply to this.
very helpful. I am on Linux and their is no feasible readbility checker for me.
It always tells me when something I write is crap (of course I always have a high ego)
#5, ball, Canada, 12 August 2005. Reply to this.
oops...that should be "THERE", sorry
#6, ball, Canada, 12 August 2005. Reply to this.
Really nice script - I've just linked it in a post, along with another tool (which makes use of some other methods to evaluate texts in Spanish, Swedish, French, ...; still no Portuguese ;) ).
Just one correction: it's the Gunning-*Fog* Index. :)
#7, João Craveiro, Portugal, 27 September 2005. Reply to this.
Oops! Thanks, João, that's now been corrected.
#8, Dave Child, United Kingdom, 28 September 2005. Reply to this.
Handy script! I am working towards a MS degree and my assugnment was just graded using the Flescher Readability score method. I ran the same text through your script which scored rather high, i.e., non-readable for the average reader (9th greade level). I tried rewriting the exercise to see what it took to get a 9th grade level. To my surprise, I could only get it down to 11th grade level and it already read like some moron had written it (lol). Are you sure the script is correct? How do you calculate the number of syllables per word?
Even if not totally accurate, I find the script quite useful. Thanks for providing it.
#9, Joe, United States, 12 October 2005. Reply to this.
Oops, assugnment = assignment
#10, Joe, United States, 12 October 2005. Reply to this.
Hi Joe. It's not 100% accurate but it is pretty damn close. The problem is programatically working out the number of syllables in a word, which is tricky.
The trick is to write well, but still have good readability. That's an art!
#11, Dave Child, United Kingdom, 12 October 2005. Reply to this.
Dave, what is the exact method you use to calculate the number of syllables?
(yes, I do realize this post is over a year old)
#12, Anonymous, United States, 18 October 2005. Reply to this.
The article links through to the functions and methods used to calculate readability, including syllable number calculations.
#13, Dave Child, United Kingdom, 19 October 2005. Reply to this.
<http://www.addedbytes.com/resources/readability-score/> nav column renders wrong in Explorer 6.0 SP2, ;-(
VG in other browsers.
CONGRATULATIONS for the site
#14, gregtower@gmail.com, Spain, 20 October 2005. Reply to this.
Its a great tool that I can't stop using. Have found another tool at http://resources.aellalei.com/writer/sample.php Only, I keep wondering why the results are that different. Actually, what would be interesting to know is how that model works. Did you check it against your model?
#15, Dezso Papp, Hungary, 12 November 2005. Reply to this.
I found the results for the Fog index to be different than my own calculations, but then again I was discounting some words myself that I didn't think should be included - e.g place names.
Still strange though.
#16, Dan, United Kingdom, 20 January 2006. Reply to this.
As Dezso Papp said, the Obsidian (aellalei) readability analysis gives very different results (e.g., your site gives my text a Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of 6; theirs, a 3.96). Also, I would enjoy a tool that uses the Powers-Sumner-Kearl formula. Thanks.
#17, Tyler, United States, 6 February 2006. Reply to this.
More than likely the discrepancy is down to the calculation of the number of syllables in text, which isn't exact. It's pretty good, but tricky to get it 100% accurate.
#18, Dave Child, United Kingdom, 6 February 2006. Reply to this.
Great stuff. We do some statistical investigations using these measures as part of the Year 6 maths course at my school, and this is going to save so much time. Many thanks for making this public.
#19, Miles Berry, United Kingdom, 15 March 2006. Reply to this.
I am giving a presentation tomorrow on leveled reading. The best part of the presentation will be when I tell the class that at www.addedbytes.com they can find a handy little readability tool. School should involve more whisky.
#20, Carolyn Hillman, United States, 11 June 2006. Reply to this.
Great tool. I'm an editor for a childern's educatonal publisher. I am beginning work on a new series of maths literacy books. I will be using your site regularly to check manuscripts.
#21, Ratu Mataira, New Zealand, 13 June 2006. Reply to this.
Great tool! I use the openoffice.org work suite (website posted as homepage) . I think it's an excellent alternative to MS Office. However, one of the only features the word processor, writer, doesn't have is the is the ability to get stats like grade level and reading ease. This tool solves that little problem. Though if i may make a suggestion, it'd be great if the average sentences per paragraph was included in the notes. Now if only OpenOffice added the ability to drag and drop text, it'd be without a shadow of a doubt the superior office suite.
#22, ndesi62, United States, 25 June 2006. Reply to this.
I absolutely love this tool. I am working on my MA and I use this for every paper I write. I always want to make sure I am writing graduate level work. Thank You!
#23, Anonymous, United States, 31 July 2006. Reply to this.
I really like this script and I see where the problems arrise from the syllable count. If you run the count_syllables() function by itself and then manually count the number of syllables the function usually returns a higher value. There isn't a sufficient rule for words that end in the letter "e". Here are a few 1 syllable words that the function counts as 2:
* have
* house
* hive
* base
* live
* leave
* brave
Here are a few 2 syllable words that the function counts as 2:
* behave
* release
* combine
Additionally, there are a few words in English (At least American English) that look very much like two syllables but are only one like the following:
* lived
* lives
* cares
* rates
Now for the real issue, we have all of those wordes the end with an "e" that should be counted a 1 syllable but then we have others that are supposed to be 2 syllables like the following:
* mile
* tile
* aisle
* isle
* style
One last thought, 'ses and 'ces!
bases and faces are both 2 syllable words but lives and cares are only one syllable.
Any ideas of how we might write a few more rules for these types of words?
Thanks.
#24, vujsa, United States, 24 September 2006. Reply to this.
Hi Vujsa,
There are plenty of words that are exceptions to the rules in the function - it's English, after all. Many of the words you mention are tricky ones to add rules for - in many ways, better to hard-code exceptions into to the function to handle these.
#25, Dave Child, United Kingdom, 24 September 2006. Reply to this.
Hey dave,
Thanks for the reply. The only reason I bring up this particular issue is doue to the very large number of words in English that end with an 'e'. I don't think that it is important to try to come up with rules for every single situation that a word ends with "e" but it would be nice to get the top 80% which is about what is being missed. The other 20% would work isself out in the averages much like your name:
Dave = 2 syllables
Child = 1 syllable
3 syllables is correct but that was because the script got lucky. ;)
But all things considered, I think that the readability scripts you have put together work very well. There only real weakness from what I can tell is the syllable rocognition system which is difficult to fix since in English, the exception is the rule. lol
I was just wondering if anyone has considered expanding the list of rules to account for a greater number of situations.
vujsa
#26, vujsa, United States, 24 September 2006. Reply to this.
I need something just like this for school when writing quizzes for Reading Counts. We don't have Internet at our school. Is there a "portable" version of this that I can install on my Library computer?
#27, s.kensler@gmail.com, United States, 21 October 2006. Reply to this.
Is there a "portable" version of this that I can install on my Library computer?
-----
Assuming you have MS Office on your computer, this scale as well as many others can be activated via "Tools > Options > Spelling & Grammer > Readability Statistics".
#28, jwehr, United States, 22 December 2006. Reply to this.
hey this helped out loads as a student wanting to know if what i was writing was going to be too complicated for examiners it especially helped because i tend to write long and complicated essays that can get out of hand and i dont tend to notice.
so thanks dave and keep up the great work
#29, alex, United Kingdom, 22 January 2007. Reply to this.
Excellent tool for nerds. I completely dig it. From a writing perspective, it is difficult to understand how to use the information. E.G. reading level 11.9 readability 42. Low readability, but snobbish M.B.A. profs like it, so who is to say?
#30, DeadMonikor, United States, 23 January 2007. Reply to this.
Maybe someone else finds the readability scale pointless, but I find it useful. I use it to get a rough idea of whether or not I'm keeping what I write simple.
#31, tinyjab, Unknown, 27 February 2007. Reply to this.
Your layouts borked. Validation might help: http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.addedbytes.com%2Fresources%2Freadability-score%2F
Nice idea though.
#32, James, Unknown, 9 March 2007. Reply to this.
Thanks for a great tool and a fun website.
I'd like to add a request: could the results include Total # of Words? And while I'm asking, how about a recommended minimum text to submit?
I think some of my students are trying to use samples that are too small. Thanks again.
#33, Mae East, United States, 14 March 2007. Reply to this.
Excllent tool,now bookmarked as a study aid. Nice to know I'm writing at Post-grad level!
Would never 'ave thunk it....
#34, Simon, United Kingdom, 29 April 2007. Reply to this.
Just need a clarification - If I have s script which contains Tables,Tabular tags as well as Text,how the scores will be computed.whether it ignores or considers those Tables and tags.
#35, Ravi, India, 25 June 2007. Reply to this.
How does your calcualtion differ from the Readibility and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level tests in Tools in Microsoft word. The Grade level, words per sentence and readibility levels differ.
#36, Jane, New Zealand, 1 August 2007. Reply to this.
Hi Jane.
In short, I don't know. I don't have access to Microsoft's source code so can't tell you how they calculate these scores. Differences, though, are likely to be caused primarily by differences in the function that calculates the number of syllables in a word.
#37, Dave Child, United Kingdom, 1 August 2007. Reply to this.
its nice but i wish you include readability of a paragraph using gunning fog index.thanks..
#38, nora pinkihan, Unknown, 6 December 2007. Reply to this.
I think I found why vujsa was having problems with the syllable count.
In the "count_syllables" function there is two lists of syllables. One for adding to the count, one for subtracting.
If you look at the values in those lists, they appear to be Regular Expressions.
However the function those values are being passed too "strpos" takes a literal string argument, not a regular expression.
I'm getting expected results for syllables using the following loops instead of the "strpos" loops in that function.
foreach ($subsyl as &$syl) {
$syllables -= preg_match('~'.$syl.'~', $word);
}
foreach ($addsyl as &$syl) {
$syllables += preg_match('~'.$syl.'~', $word);
}
Note that in PHP < 5 "as &$syl" needs to be "as $syl" because PHP < 5 doesn't support byref in foreach loops.
#39, Joe Kovar, Unknown, 14 December 2007. Reply to this.
Hi! Using the code on the two pages linked from here (copy paste, even), I get different results for the Gunning-Fog Index. Did you change something in your live code but not the example? Regardless -- great code! Thanks for sharing.
#40, Josh, Unknown, 27 March 2008. Reply to this.
I have question about the constant in readability formula. Where they come from?
Like Flesch readability formula:
ReadingEase = 206.835? (1.015 * ASL) ? (0.846 *AWL)
Also, Can we apply it to other language like French ?
#41, Readability Formula Constants, Unknown, 3 April 2008. Reply to this.
I am using a couple of other sites as well to decide the readability level (mainly FK) of several sites am using for my research. The problem is addedbytes, juicystudio, and readability.info, all three show three different grades for the same text. Is there any way I can justify this in my research? And which one shall I consider?
#42, multiple readability sites, Unknown, 11 June 2008. Reply to this.
Joe: Well spotted. I've corrected that and added in the code you posted. Thanks.
#43, Dave Child, United Kingdom, 11 June 2008. Reply to this.
Dave,
I have a question. I am trying to find the readability of questions ona reading test. I am typing each writing prompt into readability checkers such as yours. I get a different level for the Flesch Kincaid and Gunning-Fog depending on the checker I use. There are trends that show a common relationship among the increasing and decreasing difficulties from one question to another, but each question checks in at a different level. Can you explain why this may be?
#44, sheri, United States, 20 July 2008. Reply to this.
Love the new design. I noticed after your site scores the text the hints next to the scores are missing, the ones that hinted where you would want the score to be around. Is there a reason you took them off? Is it possible to get those back, it helps me know how close I was.
#45, Paco, United States, 18 August 2008. Reply to this.
sheri: Counting syllables programatically is tricky, and that is likely to be the pain cause of discrepancies. That's why the code behind this tool has a large set of tests to check syllable counting.
Paco: Glad you like the design. The hints are missing as I'm working on improving the presentation of the results, and working on finding good quality information on what the optimal scores actually are. Most results (except Reading Ease) are, I believe, based on US grade levels.
#46, DaveChild, United Kingdom, 19 August 2008. Reply to this.
Great to see this tool still available online.
Only minor glitch I've encountered - when assessing copy, I get "Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease" twice - should the lower number be the Grade?
Thanks again and keep up the great work!
#47, Tony, Canada, 19 August 2008. Reply to this.
Dave or anyone with an answer; I just have 2 questions:
1. Where can I find the explanation of the different scores. I know what the FK Readability scores mean but what is the Gunnig Fog and the others listed on your readability scores?
2. Also, could anyone explain how an FK Reading Ease score of 31 means college graduate but the Grade Level score is still 12?
Thanks for this gadget, I am beginning to learn how to use the APA writing format and tools like this have really helped me adjust my writing skills.
#48, Monica, Unknown, 20 August 2008. Reply to this.
Very cool! I teach technical writing to high school students and one lesson is on calculating readability. They just love to pack a paragraph full of jargon and say, "Hey, it sounds technical!" This will save me from bashing my head against that bit of concrete that block my students' understanding. We'll use this in class this fall. Thanks!
#49, Rob, United States, 20 August 2008. Reply to this.
I think it is great that you displayed so many different readability formulas. I am a long time teacher and I use leveled text with students. I decided to compare the readabilities here with text that had been leveled using Reading Recovery, IRI, and F&P materials that have been leveled by having students read the text. I knew the levels of the text I put in. What this showed me was that none of the readability formulas is accurate all of the time because a large part of reading depends on the readers interaction with the text. Flesh-Kincaid was accurate 50% of the time and when it is off it is usually but not always high; SMOG was accurate about 40% of the time for all but two of the 40 samples I used it was high when it was off; The Gunning and Coleman indexes were accurate 0% of the time generally they were 3-4 years high but sometimes as much as 7 years high and then on a couple of occasions low; The automated readibility was accurate 50% of the time on text over 4th grade when it was not accurate it was equally incorrect on the high side half the time and the low side half the time. On text below 4th grade reading level it was only accurate 5% of the time and generally high.
My suggestion to anyone leveling text is that you may be able to use an index of this nature to get an apporximate level - especially on text at a 4th grade level or above, but then you really need to have real people whose reading level is known read the text you are checking to get an accurate level. it is certainly more work but the only way to really make sure that what you are writing will fit your audience. If you are a teacher trying to level a text the same is true, this can give you an approximate level, but then you have to check the text against your students actual reaing levels.
By the way on when the site reports the results it says Flesh-Kincaid Reading ease for the reading ease % and then it says Flesh -Kincaid Reading Ease again when it should just say Flesh-Kincaid level or Flesh-Kincaid Score.
#50, Theresa, United States, 14 September 2008. Reply to this.
Something is wrong in the output:
Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease: 58.9 (?)
Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease: 10.9 (?)
I think the correct output is:
Flesch Reading Ease: 58.9
Flesch-Kincaid Grade: 10.9
#51, Luis Cavique, Portugal, 30 September 2008. Reply to this.
It would be nice to include an option to ignore text in parentheses, such as with a research or academic paper. I do not believe the references are not relevant in calculating the readability (e.g. Raven, 2008) .
#52, Daniel, Japan, 21 October 2008. Reply to this.
Thanks for a great tool.
It's a pity that it didn't work with a longer text (72 pages).
Is there a maximum that can be processed?
#53, Martin de Vos, Unknown, 14 November 2008. Reply to this.
Hello again. Well, after copying my earlier comment in the box, it came back with an Automated Readability Index of 0.1!
So it would take about 0.1 year to read the text. Funny score.
#54, Martin de Vos, Hengelo, Nederland, 14 November 2008. Reply to this.
i like it ..fast running......oops...tks @
#55, jasmine, Belgium, 28 December 2008. Reply to this.
great website! 3ks a lot!
I am a postgraduate student, majored in English. Now I am studying somerthing about readability. this really helps me a lot!!!:)
#56, Crstal, China, 29 December 2008. Reply to this.
NLPMax has probably one of the best fog index calculator in the internet. Check it out.
#57, Geraldo, United States, 30 December 2008. Reply to this.
Nice tool, especially because scores from several popular readability formulas are displayed at once. Two suggestions for presentation format: (1) have the statistical information display ahead of the inputed text to allow users to see these immediately without the need to scroll through the text; (2) In addition to individual scores, provide an average rating of the last five indexes, as they are all based on grade-level issues. The average may be a more powerful measure than any single index score. Thanks for producing this kind of online tool.
#58, Dee, United States, 13 January 2009. Reply to this.
As a certified reading teacher, I found this to be quite helpful when leveling a given text for students to read independently.
#59, Edd, United States, 20 January 2009. Reply to this.
I found this site through a search because I was concerned that some material that was labeled as Grade 1 level for ESL students seemed to me to be much higher. Of course, I was right. Thanks for site. I have passed it along to our junior high school ESL coordinator who also thinks it's great.
#60, Maureen, Macao, 12 February 2009. Reply to this.
Is it common to get two different results from two sites? I copied and paste the same passage here, and at Edit Central (http://www.editcentral.com/gwt/com.editcentral.EC/EC.html) and got two different results.
#61, Elysia, Melbourne, Australia, 14 March 2009. Reply to this.
Does this apply to EFL/ESL reading texts, too?
Please help!
Faisal
#62, Anonymous, Saudi Arabia, 7 May 2009. Reply to this.
I liked the programmatic implementation of the syllable count instead of having a dictionary list. Good work, keep it up!
#63, Thiyagaraj Krishna, India, 11 August 2009. Reply to this.
I was wondering if there is a version of this (similiar to the one on Microsoft Word) availible for Open Office
#64, Abe, Unknown, 20 September 2009. Reply to this.
Hi Dave, pretty impressive, good work. how to get this tool? thanks.
warm regards
charles.
#65, Charles, India, 5 December 2009. Reply to this.
22 seems high for graduate level text.
I've copied in several articles from philosophy journals (which surely count as postgraduate reading), and their Average Grade Level (AGL) is in the mid-teens.
I even copied in a big chunk of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, which is some of the most difficult prose I've ever encountered, and its AGL is about 17.
Wouldn't/Shouldn't grade 16 be considered senior-level college work, and 17 be graduate level?
#66, Ben Smith, 14 December 2009. Reply to this.
very precise and handy THANKS!!!!
#67, gh745 garret, 15 December 2009. Reply to this.
I am a copy editor and I don't see how this would be useful in my work without something like a grammar-checker that most word-processing programs have built in (which most copy editors and writers who know their grammar rules only find annoying). Syllable count is no real indication of readability. Correct usage and vocabulary is what imbues quality in writing. Now, if someone combined this or any other "readability" index with the grammar-checker, that would render a more accurate "grade level" for writers.
#68, Penniellen, United States, 15 December 2009. Reply to this.
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo
#69, po0hb34ry, United States, 16 December 2009. Reply to this.
Hi,
is the methodlogy only based on words count, so it works in every language or is there a semantic analysis part in it, so that your tool make only sense for english ?
regards
Frank
#70, Frank Simoni, Germany, 21 January 2010. Reply to this.
Personally I think it's hard to properly mathematise the English language, though I do find this tool (and the results) intriguing.
#71, Aaron, Australia, 1 February 2010. Reply to this.
I copy and pasted several content from wikipeda and checked but the grade still won't go over 9. And they say 22 is graduate level. This site is full of bullshit.
#72, Arslan, 3 February 2010. Reply to this.
This makes me feel so much better about my papers!!! I enter my paper and I always get something above a 12th grade level and I'm still in high school--so good!!!
#73, Melissa, 17 February 2010. Reply to this.
Melissa, that really isn't so good. Trying to achieve a higher grade level is worse when you writing.
Your main objective is always trying to communicate clearly and cleanly. That means a lower score is better.
There's an old saying that applies to writing as well as many other things in life.
K.I.S.S.
Keep it simple, stupid.
Best wishes,
Clif - World famous blogger (almost, LOL)
PS: I came here to thank the owner of this site: Thank you - thank you - and thanks again. Great resource.
#74, Clif Sipe, USA, 11 March 2010. Reply to this.
This is a useful resource. Thanks so much for sharing it.
#75, Eric Johnson, USA, 11 March 2010. Reply to this.
Thanks for the tool. I am a copywriter who works for not-for-profits and I find this really useful as a guide to whether I've got too complicated. I don't take it too literally - but it's great for feedback. Thanks
#76, Jill Ruchel, Australia, 23 March 2010. Reply to this.
Hi I write for your comments, I am in the process of writing a book, and using your site finding it very helpful as guide concerning keeping the readability of my book simple. I have a question! The American spellings of some UK English words differ. I am writing in plain United Kingdom English. In the final annalist of readability scores the fact spell check is U.S. thus highlights some UK spelling as incorrect. My question, does this influence the final outcome of readability scores? Secondly the use of place names, does this influence the final average grade level?
#77, Aggi Kingsley/Smith, Australia, 25 March 2010. Reply to this.
well said, a rant is an unecessary response. and as you have stated an online version of the flesch kincaid reading level is clearly not going to be of the same standard
#78, kieran, 31 March 2010. Reply to this.
Mathematics is applied to all things, this includes the universe, and it is the very nature of science. Why not grammar?
#79, aggi, australia, 11 April 2010. Reply to this.
Readability is one of my major concerns. It needs to be improved, as the response to my writing is not at the desired level yet. If this is the tool that will help me attain my goal, I am more than willing to use it and to support it.
Thank you so much!
#80, Alla Goltsman, USA, 24 April 2010. Reply to this.
Thanks for this tool. I am a writer and writing for a new audience. I found this site through the recent article in AWAI by Michael Masterson extolling the virtues and the necessity of highly readable text, if we want to be understood and believed. I have a great vocabulary, and it is a bit top-heavy for the kind of writing I am doing right now. This tool, obviously a labor of love, helps me greatly. I can practice refining and streamlining my ideas, increasing their readability, without feeling like I am being asked to dumb things down. Thanks, Clif!
#81, Tory, USA, 4 May 2010. Reply to this.
Thank you for this tool
#82, Kate Mag, 11 May 2010. Reply to this.
thanks for sharing the valuable info.
much appreciated. keep up the good work!
#83, yasiin, Indonesia, 12 May 2010. Reply to this.
The sheer preposterousness of how awesome this wonder is is of magnitudes transcending the fathoms of man and encompasses and overwhelms all that can be deemed to be average human comprehension. Well, perhaps not, but I was extremely pleased with my score when I pasted a paper to be evaluated on here. Please excuse the dangerous excess of vanity, but getting an average grade level of 24.18 despite being a mere 8th grader (whose first, second, and even third languages are not even English) who lives in the country of Morocco, amidst the vast African continent, with parents who can barely form a single sentence in the language in question and peers of blatantly inferior capability -- I'm proud of myself, I am.
Clif, K.I.S.S.ing is no longer necessary once mastery of topics is attained, for the purpose of keeping it simple (stupid!) is to ensure reliability, accuracy, and efficiency during the preliminary stages of learning and applying material. Once one can simultaneously maintain efficiency and render his/her work more detailed, complex, profound, thought-provoking, and thus more intriguing, they've got no reason to keep it simple (stupid!).
Best regards,
Al Mahdi
#84, Al Mahdi Alaoui El Hassani, Morocco, 13 May 2010. Reply to this.
Hi, great code - very interesting and can be useful in many ways! Thanks for sharing.
#85, Michael, UK, 28 May 2010. Reply to this.
I'm a teacher of English as a foreign language in Senegal and a textbook writer too. I've always been shocked by the very high level of difficulty of our national tests but could not find a tool to prove my point. I've just discovered this text readability tool and I find it very useful.
My only concern is that most 3-syllable words are not necessaily difficult for students in a French-speaking background. Apart from that, thank you again for the tool.
#86, Mamadou Mountagha Diop, Senegal, 1 June 2010. Reply to this.
This is great, just what I need to prove that many of my organisation's documents are written for the educated middle classes and not for our service users!
#87, Michele rickitt, England, 18 June 2010. Reply to this.
The first score we calculated was the Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease (Wikipedia). The text scored 119.20 on this scale (a higher score indicates easier readability; scores go from 0 to 100).
I won and I hate to say it, but good copywriters will always beat machines and people relying on machines.
#88, Koen Donker van Heel, Netherlands, 5 July 2010. Reply to this.
Wow, this is really fun. I don't really use it for anything 'professional', I just mess around with it. I copied and pasted the word "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" a whole bunch and ended up with a score in the 200s!
Cool tool, and a great time waster, although I'm sure other people find it much more useful than that ;)
#89, Rita Wolffe, United States, 9 July 2010. Reply to this.
Excellent, I have added a link from my website.
#90, plain English guide, US, 16 July 2010. Reply to this.
Hi, just wanted to say thanks for this tool - really helpful!
#91, Rachel, UK, 16 July 2010. Reply to this.
Hi,
This tool provides lots of useful readability information to supplement (not substitute for) thoughtful writing and careful editing and proofreading.
One issue I have (in general; not specifically with this tool): I get different readability stats for the same blocks of text using readability tools from different sites (also the internal spelling/grammar readability tools in MS Word). I even tried manually calculating readability scores in blocks of text using the formulas. Some of this can be attributed to differences in syllable-counting algorithms.
Thanks for sharing this tool!
#92, Yvette, United States, 1 August 2010. Reply to this.
Hi, I like.
Moving on to why I bothered to comment, I've tried three different Flesch-Kincaid grade level calculators, and gotten 9, 14, and, on yours, 12.5. Congrats on being the average and probably the best, but why is there any difference if it's all done using the same formula?
Thanks.
#93, Alex, Canada, 13 August 2010. Reply to this.
How come when I copy and paste Jay-Z's rap "Death of Autotune" from http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/jayz/doadeathofautotune.html (minus the words [chorus] etc.) it has a reading ease score of -90 (yes, NEGATIVE) but a grade level of 52?
#94, Gregory, USA, 20 August 2010. Reply to this.
This is great. I've been looking for a replacement tool ever since Google took their calculator out of Docs.
Thanks. :)
#95, MKR, 17 September 2010. Reply to this.
I read about this a couple of times in books and online articles. At last I've found a site that offers this. I found it useful in checking my school work and making sure it was no the right level. Thanks for having this.
#96, Ebbie, Holland, 22 September 2010. Reply to this.
Unfortunately, these tests fail to measure for the proper usage of words. Specifically, they do not assess a person's grammar. A test that could both measure the complexity of words used as well as the appropriate arrangement of words would be of far greater value.
Also, there is no possible way to create an algorithm that could accurately measure a writer's style. I'm sure that Faulkner's writing would receive a much higher score than Hemingway's writing, but that doesn't necessarily mean that Faulkner is a better writer; he just has a different style.
However, for the purposes of measuring basic sentence complexity and caliber of diction, this is a fantastic tool. I have used this for several papers over the years and it has always been useful. Currently, I am using it to fine tune my thesis for an upcoming speech. It's grade-level score is 22, but it's reading ease is only 15. Were this a paper I wouldn't worry so much about the low readability, but since it will be spoken I fear that it may be too complex.
Of course, this raises another question: Does the reading ease test translate over to words that are spoken? Can a low-readability paper be made understandable with a proper delivery? I don't know, but I suppose that I will find out soon.
#97, Tracy Coxon, Florida, USA, 27 September 2010. Reply to this.
Great work. Well done for incorporating the comments over the years, too.
Readability is only one measure which some of your commentators forget. A piece of writing might have a low score but make little sense. But it is useful to have this in one's toolkit. Thank you.
As for your young friend, Al Mahdi, hopefully as he grows up he will realise that keeping it simple is not just for the 'preliminary stages'. And becoming 'more detailed, complex, profound' does not lead to 'thought-provoking, and thus more intriguing'. It leads to people not bothering to read what you write!
#98, Ian, South Africa, 5 October 2010. Reply to this.
I like how this site dose many of the readability test, and give me an average. For me as a teacher, it helps save time guessing approximate reading level for material I want to use in class!!!
#99, Rachael, USA, 1 November 2010. Reply to this.
Nice job Dave, we're adapting the code for a Joomla! CMS plugin and component. The results are a good guide to readability.
#100, John, United Kingdom, 4 November 2010. Reply to this.
Al Mahdi writes from the perspective of a culture where saying anything in a straightforward manner is unusual. Generally its only those who don't really understand what they are talking about, or have nothing to say, who think that complex language is needed to express profound thought.
#101, John, United Kingdom, 4 November 2010. Reply to this.
Is there somewhere we can download the readability code / have you got a joomla component doing this ?
Thanks
Barrie
#102, Barrie Roche, united kingdom, 19 November 2010. Reply to this.
This is a useful tool, I'll let our community partners know about it. Our org is encouraging clear writing. We did a splash and created a user-freindly resource called Clear Writing and Design Handbook : found at www.lia-estrie.org/lia-resources-clear-writing.php.
We didn't reinvent the wheel, we just made it locally relevant and reminded our fellow community workers that communication needs to be user-friendly for all.
Thanks, Dave.
#103, Kathy, Canada, 30 November 2010. Reply to this.
This website has been more than helpful to me. Knowing my readability and fitting myself into each criteria has forced me into writing more university level papers as a third-year high school student as to not appear as an obtuse teenager, speaking out the side of my head--or worse. Thank you for creating this for our international english-speaking humanity to utilise and also for those computer-techies that created a multi-lingual program for this program.
#104, Ell Deliya, United States of America, 14 December 2010. Reply to this.
Hi Dave,
Really great tool. Can I ask is the target to get a really high mark for reading ease, whilst also trying to score really high for Grade Level also?
#105, Neil Owen, 31 December 2010. Reply to this.
I don't understand why in Ajax it isn't just programmed/built-in to go back to the last page.
#106, ---, United States, 5 January 2011. Reply to this.
Keep me posted! Would be interested in a Joomla extension for client sites.
regards
#107, Rob Willox, Scotland, 7 January 2011. Reply to this.
Hi,
I'd be interested in a readability test for texts in Spanish. Is there something like that on the web? I can't find one.
Thank you.
#108, Nuria, 19 January 2011. Reply to this.
Hi again,
I've tried this tool with text in Spanish, and it gives me a score. Does it recognize that it's a different language? It'd be great if I could use this tool with Spanish texts! Thank you so much for having it available online.
#109, Nuria, 19 January 2011. Reply to this.
My sentiments echo Tracy's. I love the tool, and I have used it on several occasions. I just think that with a few modifications, it could be invaluable to a writer. If there were a way to evaluate the complexity of the words used, and evaluate the style . . .I could see myself using it all the time. As far as readability goes though, this tool is second to none. Great work!
#110, vipers, Canada, 1 February 2011. Reply to this.
I think it's pretty awesome
#111, Devin, U.S.A., 3 February 2011. Reply to this.
Wow, I am going to pass all my text through this because the lower the grade level the more sales I make,
Obviously, people want to read simple stuff and this site gives me an objective way to see what has potential to work.
Thanks!
#112, Jean Paul, 21 February 2011. Reply to this.
Thanks for the tool. I'm helping design a survey targeted at a low-literacy population, and readability scores serve as a type of reality check for me. As a grad student, most people I know read and write at high levels, and trying to write (technical!) information at an 8th grade level and below is a huge struggle for me. Despite all caveats, your tool at least lets me check if I'm making progress.
#113, Clara, USA, 21 February 2011. Reply to this.
Actually, it's quite useful for some applications. I am a reading teacher and am determining the readability of texts that my struggling students are required to read. So far, I've proven my suspicions that the texts provided are inconsistently leveled, and that some of them are just too hard.
#114, Connie, USA, 5 March 2011. Reply to this.
Why? This is awesome.
#115, concerned, 22 March 2011. Reply to this.
"adsfa adsf asdf asdsd s" got me a score of 100.20 :-D
#116, Claudius, 25 March 2011. Reply to this.
@Claudius: Why the :-D? What category was the 100.2 in? The Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease? If so, check your reading skills:
To quote:
"(a higher score indicates easier readability; scores go from 0 to 100). "
So basically the text you entered was considered really easy to read. Congrats. :-D.
#117, Jen Jen, 30 March 2011. Reply to this.
Why is it pointless? What an innane, useless comment. Personally as an ESL teacher, the results are not very meaningful as they don't tell me how readable my text is to a non-native or what level a learner needs to have attained before it is 'readable' to them. However, I do understand that the analysis may have been designed for other purposes. To the site owner: It would be great if you could make your tool give the kind of results I describe!
Thanks
#118, Paul, Australia, 10 April 2011. Reply to this.
Dave, that's a very interesting tool. I'm interested in extending the common readability indexes so that they can rate the amount of technical / domain knowledge a visitor to a web site would need to posses. See http://www.lustratusrepama.com/communication/the-characteristics-of-a-technology-reading-ease-index/. Do you know if others have already done this? I'd sooner use some existing concepts than invent my own.
Kind regards
Danny Goodall
#119, Danny Goodall, UK, 2 May 2011. Reply to this.
I find it odd that shakespeare scores for a 6th grader
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee!
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight, or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
Thou marshal’st me the way that I was going;
And such an instrument I was to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools o’ th’ other senses,
Or else worth all the rest. I see thee still;
And on thy blade and dugeon gouts of blood,
Which was not so before. There’s no such thing.
It is the bloody business which informs
Thus to mine eyes. Now e’er the one half-world
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtain’d sleep; witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate’s offerings, and wither’d murder,
Alarum’d by his sentinel, the wolf,
#120, Anonymous, 6 May 2011. Reply to this.
I'm SOOO glad I found this, kinda funny I never thought to Google it. For the first time in years I haven't had any word processor. I always read and re-read and re-re-read my papers, but its always interesting to see what a computer thinks of them. Although I have gotten very good grades on paper written at a very simple reading level. Anyways, gotta get back to writing! THANKS AGAIN! NEVER TAKE THIS DOWN!
#121, Sarah, USA, 17 May 2011. Reply to this.
Thank you for putting this up! I am an English teacher, and I need to ensure that the texts I have my students read is within their reading ability level. This is the easiest method to find text analysis that I've found so far.
Question/ suggestion: is there a way to print out the text readability reports for future reference? I can always cut and paste it into Word, but it would be nice if I could click a button and have it create a .pdf. I need these results for future reference.
Thanks a lot for making my life easier!
#122, R. Huebner, USA, 19 May 2011. Reply to this.
OMG, 69! "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo." takes 21 years of education to understand!
I write descriptions of technical podcasts. My assumption is that everyone in my readership has a 16+ grade level (they may have dropped out early from boredom) and that they would be reading my text as an auxiliary to the podcast. People keep wanting it dumber, anyway. It makes me hurt inside. It disappoints me. It is as if we must not push advanced logic, or increased levels of intentionality, unless we, um, don't. Do you see the inverse recursion there? Thanks.
#123, Constance X, USA, 31 May 2011. Reply to this.
Thanks for this great resource! I encourage my students at York University to use it often. I use it often myself!
#124, Peter Paolucci, Canada, 5 June 2011. Reply to this.
Thank you for this handy tool. It worked well for me and I use Firefox 4.0.1.
#125, Jason Johnson, US, 15 June 2011. Reply to this.
Lot's of naysayers out there ... .all whom are jealous, insecure, and miserable.
Thanks for putting this tool out there, and making such thing available.
Best to you!
#126, Thumbs Up, 16 June 2011. Reply to this.
I ran the Flesch Kincaid readablity statistics on my Word 2007 program. Then, I was curious about the results of other programs so I ran it on this site, but was surprised to see FLESCH results were different. Why would they be different? -I wasn't surprised to see different results among different ranking systems.
Reading Ease = 100% on 7 rhymes
vs.93.90, 98.20, 77.00 91.80, 93.70, 94.80, 94.00
Grade Level = 0.0 on 7 rhymes
vs. 3.4, 2.8, 12.0, 5.2, 3.3, 2.4, & 2.3
#127, Laurie, U.S.A., 28 July 2011. Reply to this.
Works great in Firefox 5 on Mac Os! Great tool, thanks!
#128, Rachel, Canada, 28 July 2011. Reply to this.
Hi,
I have made a code for spanish text. If you want, I'd like contribute to your project with it.
I made a count syllables function for spanish language and use the Fernandez Huerta Readability Formula with some variants found in:
http://linguistlist.org/issues/22/22-2332.html
If you want the code (very simple) send me some lines to my mail.
Regards.
#129, n0k, Spain, 8 August 2011. Reply to this.
Thank you for this site. My confidence was at an all time low before I entered my text. I'm sure a university graduate would have scored better than I did. But, not considering myself to be the brightest button in the bag, I was happy with the results. Thanks Paul Delaware
#130, Paul Delaware, United Kingdom, 25 September 2011. Reply to this.
This is great. For marketing purposes they say to write at a 5th grade reading level. This helps to see if copy is too advanced to be effective. Thanks!
#131, Jared Ellis, United States, 30 September 2011. Reply to this.
Thanks a lot Dave! You have an excellent tool here.
#132, Marcus, United States, 4 October 2011. Reply to this.
I work in educational publishing and just have to say (I know it's several years later...) this is the MOST useful leveling tool I've encountered. Grade levels are incredibly important, and it is very hard to attain accurate levels with all the different programs out there. We used to use Okapi! (website) but I think this is more thorough. Dave, I bet you could charge some SERIOUS duckets to large publishing houses for this program....
but not to me, please! I'm just a lowly freelancer. :) Thank you for the site!
#133, ISBN, USA, 7 October 2011. Reply to this.
Thanks a ton, this is providing me with hours of entertainment while being useful in my writing. :)
#134, cllaire, 13 November 2011. Reply to this.
Hi Dave
Thanks for your readability tool/TextStatistics.php
I would like to use it on a website in similar way it runs on this site but I do not know how to install/setup the script/php page to do this & the file comes with no install instructions. I emailed you a few weeks back & have emailed again today. I would be very grateful for your addvise on install-many thanks
#135, Richard, UK, 12 December 2011. Reply to this.
I am still trying to get TextStatistics.php to work for me.
I did see in the file this:
Sample Code
----------------
$statistics = new TextStatistics;
$text = 'The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.';
echo 'Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease: ' . $statistics->flesch_kincaid_reading_ease($text);
This has helped me & I am using it like this:
//Create a class instance:
$statistics = new TextStatistics;
//Display output:
echo "\n";
echo 'Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease: ' . $statistics->flesch_kincaid_reading_ease();
echo "<br />"; // creating a new line
echo 'Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: ' . $statistics->flesch_kincaid_grade_level();
echo "<br />"; // creating a new line
echo 'Gunning-Fog Score: ' . $statistics->gunning_fog_score();
echo "<br />"; // creating a new line
echo 'Coleman-Liau Index: ' . $statistics->coleman_liau_index();
echo "<br />"; // creating a new line
But so far I get the same results outputted no matter what input text I use! So I still need to fix this-any help greatly appreciated-thanks
#136, Richard, UK, 14 December 2011. Reply to this.
I am starting to get going with this using this:
$statistics = new TextStatistics;
$text = $_POST["text"];
echo 'Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease: ' . $statistics->flesch_kincaid_reading_ease($text);
echo "<br />"; // creating a new line
echo 'Flesch-Kincaid Grade level: ' . $statistics->flesch_kincaid_grade_level($text);
echo "<br />"; // creating a new line
echo ' word_count: ' . $statistics->word_count($text);
Which outputs (for my simple test text):
Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease: 103.5
Flesch-Kincaid Grade level: 2.4
word_count: 100
I did not know the FK reading ease could be greater than 100?
Thanks
#137, Richard, UK, 14 December 2011. Reply to this.
thanks so mcuh i love this...it helps me to be confident in my sentences or realize that i needs to tweak my ideas! thanks!!
#138, Lucy, USA, 29 December 2011. Reply to this.
Thank you for this tool. I work in Direct Response marketing and clarity is of utmost importance. I've actually been through several FK tools and this one seems spot on. I just bookmarked it, so I'll be using again in the future.
#139, ---, 10 January 2012. Reply to this.
A useful tool. As an author of children's novels, and one teen non-fiction book, I am always conscious of reading level. Making all material readable is hard work. Making very complex material readable is even harder work.
Beyond mechanics (which is all any software can measure) there is one more factor more important than any other: the magic of an author's voice. A reader's reach should exceed his grasp; somewhere in this study we need to realize that a reader who will stretch is a reader who will grow.
I'll use this site again. Well done.
#140, Bill Swan, Canada, 17 January 2012. Reply to this.
strangely, this gets a different result than word's with great frequency, although I cannot comprehend why.
#141, brian, 24 January 2012. Reply to this.
Excellent App, really helped me gauge the level of my research papers.
#142, Ellie, 14 February 2012. Reply to this.
After programming Excel with the Flesch-Kincaid formula and using data collected from texts I use in my reading program, I was intrigued when I found that my FK score differed from that of Word's FK. Imagine how delighted I was when I found your tool and your FK matched mine.
I actually read through all the comments to date, and thoroughly appreciated how many people recognized the amount of work put in to this application and its practical uses.
If and when more refinements are made, Happy Day. Until then, I will use this one, gladly.
#143, Julie, USA, 20 February 2012. Reply to this.
Thanks! I've used this to determine approximate reading level of passages to use with my reading students.
#144, Jeanette, 27 February 2012. Reply to this.
Great! We actually just launched a similar iPad app called eReadability that allows you to do this on the run (at a school or bookstore, for example). Check it out at http://ereadability.com/ to download it.
#145, Alora Studios, United States, 5 March 2012. Reply to this.
Thank you kindly, this is much easier to use than the one in Word 2010. You just helped me prove my FYP experiment is valid. Thanking you again.
#146, Kevin Chow, Ireland, 13 March 2012. Reply to this.
This tool is pretty cool and it deserves its own domain.
#147, Szybko Schudnac, Canada, 13 March 2012. Reply to this.
Very helpful and complete PHP library and very nicely written. Thanks a lot for sharing this.
#148, DannyB, Israel, 21 March 2012. Reply to this.
Very helpful and complete PHP library and very nicely written. Thanks a lot for sharing this.
#149, Agnes, ghjghj, 5 June 2012. Reply to this.
This is a nifty tool; gotta say, however, that the rampant grammar errors in so many of these critiques of your work (comments) made me giggle!
#150, jael, usa, 13 August 2012. Reply to this.
I have used this before as a hopeful writer, it is nice to know about what level you are writing on and what range of audience will be able to (easily) understand my work.
#151, Valerie, USA, 22 November 2012. Reply to this.
I have been looking for this tool for days now. A friend suggested it to me and says that it will be useful for my research. I'm writing a paper and really needs to install this. Although it had been already moved to another domain, I'm still reading all the comments in here, quite helpful!
#152, do my essay, United States, 14 January 2013. Reply to this.