Testing Readability
The following "Tech Tip" is from the December WI State Law Library newsletter. You can read the newsletter in whole at: http://wsll.state.wi.us/newsletter/0812.html
Testing your “readability� by Heidi Yelk
Did you know that both Microsoft Word and WordPerfect have built in “readability� tools? These tools analyze your document and return information such as the grade level, difficulty, and the percentage of passive voice sentences. Readability tools are touted as a way to improve writing for clarity and comprehension.
To access the readability function in MS Word, go to Tools and select Spelling and Grammar. Click on Options and check the box “Show Readability Statistics.� After running spell check, readability statistics will be displayed.
I don’t have access to WordPerfect, but my research indicates that its readability tool provides more analysis and a better display of results. In WordPerfect, you can compare your document to the readability of another document. Writing samples of Hemingway and the Gettysburg address are pre-loaded for comparison. See Determining Reading Levels in WordPerfect 10 for step-by-step procedures.
Both MS Word and WordPerfect utilize the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test and grade level rating. See this Wikipedia entry on the Flesch-Kincaid test for more information about that formula.