If you are a content writer who is wondering how to do a readability test online, you have come to the right place. Before you publish your work, you should have ample readability test knowledge so that you can ensure readership and grammatical perfection. There are numerous readability tests online, like the famous Flesch Kincaid readability test. So you must be confused on which to use. Here is the answer, if you are asking yourself, “How to do a readability test?”
Readability is the amount of use, with which readers may read your work. As a content writer, readership is extremely important and hence, there is a certain level of readability that must be incorporated in your work, so that it can be read by a wide body of readers. Your readers would be different in ages, backgrounds and education level. So it is up to you, to make sure that all of them find your work interesting and readable. This is where your content writing skills come in handy. With the emergence of SEO techniques, readability tests have gained prominence. Therefore, we have narrowed down the best ways you can do a readability test online.
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FLESCH-KINCAID TEST
Flesch-Kincaid readability test is one of the most popular readability tests and is widely recommended by professionals. The test provides a measure for readability, that the content is required to have. It assesses the number of words and produces the result in an easy and fast way. Here are some points to increase your readability test knowledge using this test:
- History: Flesch Kincaid readability tests are the most famous readability test available online. It was invented in 1975 by Peter Kincaid for the U.S Navy, for assessing the readability of technical manuals taught in the navy. It comes in two levels: the Flesch Reading Ease, and the Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level.
- Use: In the Flesch Kincaid Ease scale, the higher the score, the easier it is to read it. It emphasizes more on word length than the construction and length of sentences. Thus, words that have more than two syllables, lead to a lower score, citing it as difficult to read.
The Flesch Kincaid Grade scale is more concerned with sentence length, than word length. It does not have any upper bound. It is mostly used in the field of academia to check if the texts taught in the particular school grade are readable enough for the pupils. The result of the test should be equal to the grade that is meant for the text. - Formula and functionality: Both the tests are pretty accurate, as they function on easy mathematical formulas. The formula for the Ease scale is:
The formula for the Grade test is:
The lower the result is, the tougher it is to read the text. The highest possible readability is 121.22. - Application: The Ease scale is useful when it comes to content writing. The scale ensures that the content is appropriate for the audience, for which it is meant. It does so by judging their occupation, age, educational background, nationality and so on. It is a parameter in the US, when it comes to determining the reading ease of official policy papers. For example, in Florida, life insurance policies have a Flesch reading ease score of 45 or greater.
The Grade scale is used in schools and universities to ensure that the material taught is age-appropriate.
FRY READABILITY FORMULA
The Fry Readability Formula is used to provide readability matriculation, for texts in English. It shows the graphical representation of the readability measure. The higher number in the graph, obtained after doing a readability test online, signifies a more readable content. Here is some more information about the Fry Readability Formula:
- History: The fry readability formula measures the readability metric of texts written in the English language. It was discovered by Edward Fry. It is one of the best choices if you want to do a readability test online.
- Use: This test takes into account the number of sentences and the number syllables per word, to form results in the form of a graph that indicate the readability of a text in the form of lines intersecting across it.
- Formula and functionality: In the Fry readability graph, the y-axis indicates the average number of sentences and the x-axis indicates the syllables per hundred words. The average of the number of sentences and the syllables are plotted and the intersection of the two lines marks the readability number. Here is the Fry Readability graph:
The higher the result is, the more difficult it is to read the document in question. - Application: The Fry Readability Formula is used to measure the readability of official documents in the U.S. It is mostly used in the healthcare industry to make sure that the documents are comprehensible to a wider population.
COLEMAN-LIAU INDEX
The Coleman-Liau Index readability test is used to approximate the grade level, which is necessary to comprehend the text via doing a readability test online. The number obtained in the result, is associated with the grade of a student. The test helps writers and publishers to understand if the readability of the content is suited for the targeted customer base or not.
- History: This test was developed by Meri Coleman and T. L. Liau for doing a readability test online.
- Use: This test uses characters in words instead of syllables to show results in the form of a number. It does not require the character content to be analyzed, but just measures the length of words in characters.
- Formula and functionality: The formula for the Coleman-Liau test is:
L= average number of letters per 100 words
S= the average number of sentences per 100 words
The result corresponds to the grade of the student. For example, if the result is 13.5, it would mean that the readability is appropriate for a first year undergraduate. - Application: The Coleman-Liau Index is used to gauze the readability of official documents and it is also used in mechanical scanners to find readability.
GUNNING FOG INDEX
The Gunning Fog Index is one of the best readability tests to measure school books’ texts. ‘Significance of the knowledgeable text would be none, if one won’t understand it in simple terms’. With this thought, let’s study more about this readability measuring index.
- History: This test was was developed in 1952 by Robert Gunning, an American businessman to measure the readability of print media and textbooks in schools.
- Use: There is a specific formula for measuring the readability. The highest readability is 12, which would indicate that one would need a college degree to read a particular text, while the lowest is 6, which would indicate that a 6th grader can read a particular text. Universal readability is ensured when a text scores around 8.
- Formula and functionality: The formula for the test is:
Words= number of words
Sentences= average length of sentences
Complex words= number of words that have three or more syllables
The higher the result is, the more difficult it is to read. - Application: The Gunning Fog Index is mainly used to measure the readability of print media and in academia for measuring readability of textbooks.
AUTOMATED READABILITY INDEX
The automated readability index, also known as ARI, is used to measure the generique readability of the texts in english, by doing a readability test online. Although unlike the above mentioned tests, this is associated with the digital world. Let’s study more about this index through the below mentioned points:
- History: It is a readability test used for measuring English texts. It was originally developed for measuring the readability from electric typewriters.
- Use: the Automated Readability Index does not use syllables of words, but instead uses character to assign results. Level 1 is the lowest corresponding to people of ages 6-8. 12, the highest score, is for high school students aged 18-19.
- Formula and functionality: The formula of the test is:
Characters= number of spaces between words
Words= number of words
Sentences= number of sentences - Application: It is used mostly in computer programs because of its use of characters instead of syllables.
As a content writer, it is of utmost importance that you know to do readability test online, as it will decide your readership. Taking these tests and having readability knowledge will also help you locate the deficiencies in your writing, so that you can perfect yourself. To become a better writer you test all your work before you publish it.
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