“The art of art, the glory of expression and the brilliance of the light of letters, is simplicity.”
Walt Whitman, 1819-1892, American poet
The client said, “We want this to be written at a tenth grade reading level.” I said, “What is a tenth grade reading level and how is it measured?” The customer said, “Hey, you will check the time! I have to go right now.”
Similar experiences on several occasions made me think that people use the phrase reading level without really knowing what it means. They read it somewhere and think they sound smarter if they can include it in the conversation. That sent me on a search to find out what it means and how it is measured. This is what I discovered.
First, this is an important topic, and many clients and technology writers who work for them do not understand it well or consider it carefully. For very experienced writers who write for a wide range of audiences, it becomes instinctive. They know their audience. They know how to write in a way that readers can understand. They make adjustments for the specific audience they are writing for. For writers new to the business or experienced writing for a limited audience, it can be a problem when they need to write for an audience they are not familiar with.
Then when people say something is written on a tenth grade reading level the target audiences reading ability that concerns us. Someone could read “Uber der Welt so hoch” and not yet understand that. The goal is to write in a way that the target audience can understand. That involves using vocabulary and sentence structure that match the audience’s level of reading comprehension. , is an inappropriate name. What they really mean is that it’s written in a tenth grade understanding level or what is called a readability level. It is not
Finally, the good news. Readability can be measured. Experts in the field of linguistics know what a tenth grade readability level is and how it is different from another level. It is not an exact science, but it is developed enough that writers can use it to help them hit the target more precisely. We won’t go into the really technical aspects of the subject, but we will provide enough background and illustrations for you to know how to get more information about it.
Readability formulas
Readability formulas are used to determine if a document is written at the level of understanding appropriate to the target audience. There are a number of readability formulas used by various language groups. For now, we are going to focus on Gunning Fog Index Because it is one of the most famous and one that any writer can use. The index was developed by Robert Gunning in 1952. The basic idea is that the bigger the words and the more complex the sentences, the more difficult it is to understand the document. Small words and short sentences are still the easiest to understand.
For convenience, Fox Index levels are equal to the number of years of formal education a reader needs to understand the material. Incidentally, this is based on the American twelve and elementary grades system with a number of years of college education of thirteen and more. A secondary education is a level 12. A master’s degree would be a level 16.
To put this in perspective, a typical big city newspaper is written at a level 7 or 8. The belief in most industries is that anything above level 12 is too difficult for most readers to understand. . Remember, the Fox Index is not an absolute measure. However, when used in a range of samples, it is a very good indicator. These are some levels of the Fox index for popular publications.
Atlantic monthly = 12
Newsweek = 10
Reader’s Summary = 9
True confessions = 7
Most comics = 6
(This article = 11.6)
The applied fog index
Here is an example of the same information written at two different readability levels as measured by the Fog Index.
Example one: Untold numbers of eternally optimistic people buy lottery tickets with odds in the millions of dollars against their chances of success. They are underpinned by a level of ignorance that prevents them from acknowledging that the probability of such an unrealistic eventuality occurring is an order of magnitude beyond their ability to understand. They cling to the idea that if an event is possible, it certainly must happen regardless of how big the statistical odds are against you. His cry is always, “Well, someone has to win,” which is enough to block even the brightest glow from the cold light of reason.
The level is reached by counting the number of words, the number of sentences and the number of words of three syllables, or longer. Then a formula is applied that provides the level of the readability index. In this example, there are 103 words, 4 sentences, and 20 three-syllable words. Using the formula, the Fog Index level is 18. That means the reader should probably have a Ph.D. to ensure understanding.
Example two: Many people who never give up hope buy lottery tickets even though the odds of winning are huge. What keeps them buying tickets is that they cannot understand that the odds against them are so great that they really cannot expect to win. They believe that because something is possible, then it must happen regardless of the odds against it. Saying “Well, someone has to win” is enough to keep them from seeing the reality of the situation.
Using the same method, the 86 words, 4 sentences, and 6 three-syllable words in this example give a fog index level of 11. That’s a high school.
Now you try
Choose a sample of text from a font with which you are familiar. It helps if it’s a fairly large block of text. The larger the sample, the more accurate the index number is. For example, I selected two blocks of text from the guide that came with my Nikon camera. Follow me through the process:
1. Count the number of words in sample If there are hyphenated words, count each part as a word.
(My account: 120) (Your account 
2. Count the number of sentences in the sample
(My account: 5) (Your account
3. Count the amount of big words in the sample: 3 or more syllables.
(My account: 3) (Your account:)>
4. Calculate the average sentence length. To do this, divide the number of words by the number of sentences. For example, 120 divided by 5.
(My number: 24) (Your number
5. Calculate the large word percentage. To do this, divide the number of large words by the total number of words. For example, 3 divided by 120 = .02 = 2%.
(My number: 2) (Your number
6. Add the average sentence length to the % of big words.
(My number: 26) (Your number
7. Multiply the result by 0.4.
Fog index (My level: tenth grade) (Your level
Now try it on something you have written. From what you know about your audience, does your fog index match the readers’ level of understanding? It is a very important question, and this formula can help you answer it.
For more information on readability formulas, use any search engine to find sites related to readability formulas, passive index, Flesch-Kincaid index or lexical density test.
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