Someone asked about READABILITY indexes: Word has a readability function as part of the grammar and spell check. To turn it on (this varies so you may have to experiment), go to WORD > PREFERENCES > Click on SPELLING AND GRAMMAR > Check SHOW READABILITY STATISTICS > Click OK.
At any time in a Word file, you can run the Grammar and Spell check (usually the first item under TOOLS), and when it's done with that check, it will end with the readability statistics.
It checks for both word length and sentence length, and though it's not foolproof, if you get a high score (over 10, I feel, for fiction writing), it should be a flag that the writing could benefit from pruning. Really punchy genre writing could go lower.
Thanks, Ron.
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I'm getting between five and seven. Too low?
I used to have that feature turned on. It always said my manuscripts were around a fourth grade reading level.
Now I've read your books and that's hard to believe unless kids read better than they used to.
Patti, sometimes you seem to be looking for things to worry about.
I'm sure you could go more sesquipedalian and impress folks at parties and readings!
Word is a MicroSoft product. Need more be said?
How well you know me considering we've never met. Here's a question, are there people we know online better than those next door?
I was curious enough to run my current manuscript and the last book I wrote through the readability index. 4.4 and 4.7 grade levels, respectively. I try to write fast-moving prose that's easy to read, so I'm okay with those results.
If we take Georges Simonon and Elmore Leonard's advice, I guess that's the numbers we aim for.
I ran a short story through it and got 3.9 - I've no idea if that is good or bad. There was a lot of dialogue and Word kept telling me off for having too many fragment sentences. Why am I letting Microsoft 'judge' the readability of my writing? For heaven's sake ...
It may be easier on me than my writing group.
Interesting. Might be worth trying on various types of writing. I read Obama's Oval Office speech was about at a 10th grade level -- it went over a lot of people's heads. I read the speech -- pretty simple and basic. Maybe people should be reading more Proust?
Funny you should mention Proust. Just back from the library where we looked for Proust on audio and did not fine any. Nor a score of other literary lions. Just crime fiction.
Been on the road much of the day and just got back to this. If you write sentence fragments (which makes what you write sound like someone talking, which is desirable in fiction, I think) the readability score comes way down. People used to writing in complete sentences for term papers get scores that go way in the opposite direction.
You can customize the grammar and spell check so it only flags things you're interested in catching. You can shut off checks for fragments, for instance, if you don't want to have them flagged.
The grammar check is correct maybe 75% of the time. Useful a lot less. You have to think of it as alerting you to a possible problem, not making a judgment, otherwise it can get you feeling defensive.
thanks, ron.
Well, I ran a short story through this readability test and it said it was a grade 7 level. I'm happy with my writing.
When I was a tech writer, we used what was called "The Fog Index." We had to take random paragraphs of our writing and divide the total number of words by the number of three-syllable (and greater) words, and then that number had to correspond to a range that equated to an 8th grade reading level (which, we were told, was the level aimed at by Reader's Digest).
Reading levels are always a mystery to me. My younger children want to read Agatha Christie for their AR (Accelerated Reader) program at school; but Christie was consistently rated as a high-fourth or low-fifth grade reading level. The same with the TWILIGHT series--they were all rated as fourth/fifth grade. My kids are in junior high and have high reading levels, so of course they couldn't read those books for AR credit; but I have a hard time believing that the average fouth grader would get a lot out of MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS.
Patti--I remember reading about the man who recorded REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST for an audiobook. He had been a soap opera actor for many years and the perfect voice for reading. He had also recorded ULYSSES and FINNEGAN'S WAKE among many others.
I have been skeptical of reading levels since they told me my first grader read at at eighth grade level. Yes, but those books were too mature for her, even if she could read them. Something seems off about the whole thing. Thanks for the ideas, Deb.
What is Flesch-Kinkaid grade level 16,5???
Patti - The index is not a measure of content difficulty but readability. It's usefulness is chiefly for adult readers, not children.
Dorte H - A 16.5 score means 16.5 years of schooling. A reader would do well to have a college degree.
Thanks, Ron.
Thanks, Ron.
Oh, that is fun. Then my new cozy mystery is for academics.
Or perhaps it is because Microsoft cannot handle simple names like Rhapsody Gershwin, Jesmona Rowntree and Tuxford Wensleydale?
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