See what you learn when you try it by hand
Sure, you can find out the reading ease of your copy the easy way — via Microsoft Word’s readability statistics (PDF). But the pros know how to figure the difficulty of reading their copy by hand.
I think all writers should run a readability formula on their copy by hand — once. That will help you understand what you’re measuring and how to fix the obstacles to reading your copy.
Here’s how to run the Gunning Fog index on your copy:
1. Choose a sample.
Count out a sample of about 100 words, ending with a complete sentence. Here’s a 101-word example:
“Think about how opals are made. Opals are brilliant gems that form inside rocks. In its raw form, an opal is part of a dark brown or black stone, with a fiery blue or red center. Craftsmen chip away at the black rock that surrounds the opal to expose the jewel inside.
“In a story, clutter – too many words – can mask the great quotes, the stunning twists of phrase and the dynamic anecdotes — just as the dull rock can mask the opal. It’s the stone you chip away that defines the opal; it’s the words you chip away that define the story.”
2. Divide the number of words by the number of sentences.
That gives you your average sentence length. Our sample has an average of 17 words per sentence.
3. Count “hard words.”
Those are words with three or more syllables. Skip:
- Proper nouns
- Compound words that were once two simple words (“bookkeeper,” for instance)
- Words that grew to three syllables with a suffix, such as “ed.”
Our sample has three: “dynamic,” “anecdotes” and “fiery.”
4. Add your average sentence length to your number of long words.
For our sample, that’s 17 words per sentence plus three long words for a total of 20.
5. Multiply by .4.
The result is the average number of years a reader must have spent in school to understand your writing. In our sample, 20 x .4 = 8, which means it is written at the 8th grade level — about the level of Ladies’ Home Journal.
The lower the number, the easier your copy is to read. Best bet: Keep your copy’s level in the single digits.
Reach Real Readers
Get a reading-level reality check with results from the latest U.S. literacy study
“The problem with communication,” said George Bernard Shaw, “is the illusion that it has been accomplished.”
No kidding. Send out a message that’s written at the 11th grade level, for instance, and 97% of U.S. adults won’t be able to understand it, according to the Department of Education’s latest adult literacy test.
Draw more people into your piece and help them read it faster, understand it better and remember it longer.
At Cut Through the Clutter — our in-house clear-writing workshop — you’ll learn how to:- Write for real readers. Chances are, you’re vastly overestimating your audience members’ literacy rate, according to a massive international study.
- Overcome special audience challenges. Older people, health care consumers, mobile users — maybe even your CEO — may need more help than you realize.
- Sell readability's bottom-line business value. The U.S. Navy, for instance, saved more than $27 million in officer time by increasing readability.
- Increase reading by up to 75% by making one change to your message.
- Measure, monitor and manage readability — your No. 1 tool for reaching more readers.
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