You’ve enabled your Readability Statistics feature in Microsoft Word’s Spelling and Grammar Checker and evaluated a sample document. But based on your Grade Level scores, what action should you take?
Readability scores are helpful editing tools for writers of too-long sentences. Recall from the Clarity Clinic that our goal is to write sentences that can be read once and immediately understood. Readable documents are more apt to be read in their entirety, and their content is more apt to be remembered. Readability indictors include:
- The number of sentences in each paragraph.
- The number of words in each sentence.
- The number of syllables in each word.
The Spelling and Grammar Checker’s Readability Statistics feature provides Passive Sentences, Reading Ease, and Grade Level scores, which help you gauge the readability level of your documents. A high Passive Sentences or Grade Level score and a low Reading Ease score signal opportunities to edit sentences. Let’s explore the difference between grade/reading level and education level and how to use the Grade Level score:
Is reading level the same as education level?
According to research summarized in William H. DuBay’s Working with Plain Language, a person’s reading level is not necessarily the same as their education level. Today’s average American adults read effectively at a 9th-grade level. But the comfortable or recreational reading level for those adults is around 7th grade. Researchers such as Philip Meyer, author of The Vanishing Newspaper, identify the 6th- to 8th-grade level as “the sweet spot of . . . readability” for newspapers intended for the average reader. The average college graduate reads effectively at a 12th-grade reading level and comfortably at a 10th-grade reading level.
In addition to paragraph, sentence, and word length, what affects readability?
DuBay (Working with Plain Language) found that variables on the reader’s side, such as prior knowledge, interest, and motivation, all affect readability. Variables on the writer’s side, such as the use of noun clusters (for example, “Readability Statistics Feature”) and the complexity of the ideas expressed, also affect readability. Therefore, as with the Passive Sentences and Reading Ease test scores, we use the Grade Level score to gauge readability—not as a sole or absolute test of readability.
How do we use the Grade Level score to make sentences more readable?
Before final editing, the Grade Level score of this Blog was 13.3. Aiming for a score of 8th– to 10th-grade reading level, I reviewed the Blog to see if I could shorten any paragraphs or sentences, simplify any phrasing, or replace any multi-syllabic words with simpler words. I also reviewed my use of navigational aids, such as headings and lists, to make sure that they were used effectively.
My changes included the following—
1. ORIGINAL SENTENCE: You may recall that the Spelling and Grammar Checker’s Readability Statistics feature provides Passive Sentences, Reading Ease, and Grade Level scores, which help you gauge the readability level of your documents. [This complex sentence had 31 words.]
REVISED SENTENCE: The Spelling and Grammar Checker’s Readability Statistics feature provides Passive Sentences, Reading Ease, and Grade Level scores. Those scores help you gauge the readability level of your documents. [These two simple sentences have 17 and 11 words respectively.]
2. ORIGINAL SENTENCE: So, although today’s average American adult reads at a 9th-grade reading level, the comfortable or recreational reading level for that average reader is around 7th grade. [This complex sentence had 25 words.]
REVISED SENTENCE: Today’s average American adults read at a 9th-grade reading level. But the comfortable or recreational reading level for those adults is around 7th grade. [These two simple sentences have 10 and 14 words respectively.]
3. ORIGINAL SENTENCE: In addition to reading level, DuBay found that variables on the reader’s side, such as the reader’s prior knowledge, interest, and motivation, all affect readability. [This sentence had 23 words, two modifying phrases, and used a form of “read” four times.]
REVISED SENTENCE: DuBay found that variables on the reader’s side, such as prior knowledge, interest, and motivation, all affect readability. [This sentence has 18 words, one modifying phrase, and uses a form of “read” two times.]
Those three changes lowered the Blog’s Grade Level score from 13.3 to 11.3. Using Readability Statistics thus encourages me to locate opportunities to make my sentences more readable. I focus on making paragraphs and sentences shorter and more simply structured.
William H. DuBay reminds us: “Good writers are often excellent readers. They find difficult texts easy to read and do not realize how difficult their writing is for others to read.” Richard Lederer, author of “The Case for Short Words” (The Miracle of Language, New York: Pocket Books, 1991) adds: “Make [short words] the spine and heart of what you speak and write.”
With those ideas in mind, you are ready to set up your computer’s Readability Statistics feature and use your Passive Sentences, Reading Ease, and Grade Level scores. Those objective gauges will signal opportunities to increase the readability of your documents.
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