Technical writing: what is a reading level anyway?

“The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.”

Walt Whitman, 1819-1892, American poet

The client said, “We want this to be written at a 10th grade reading level.” I said, “What is a tenth grade reading level and how is it measured?” The customer said, “Hey, look at the time! I have to go right now.”

Similar experiences repeatedly made me think that people use the phrase reading level not 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 found out.

First of all, this is an important topic, and many clients and the tech writers who work for them do not understand it well or consider it carefully. For highly experienced writers writing for a wide range of audiences, it becomes instinctive. They know their audiences. They know how to write in a way that readers can understand. They make adjustments for the specific audience they write for. For writers new to the business or with experience 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 in a 10th grade reading level on 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 means using a vocabulary and sentence structure that is tailored to the audience’s level of reading comprehension. , is a misnomer. What they really mean is that it is written in the tenth grade. understanding level or what is called a readability level. Is not

Finally, the good news. Legibility can be measured. Experts in the field of linguistics know what a tenth grade level of readability is and how it differs from another level. It is not an exact science, but it is developed enough that writers can use it to help them hit the mark more precisely. We won’t get into the really technical aspects of the topic, but we will provide enough background and illustrations so you know how to find out more about it.

Readability formulas

Readability formulas are used to determine if a document is written at the appropriate level of understanding for the target audience. There are a number of readability formulas used by various language groups. For now, we will focus on the 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 larger 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 equal the number of years of formal education a reader needs to understand the material. By the way, this is based on the American system of twelve grades of elementary and high school with the number of years of college education from thirteen years and older. A secondary education is a level 12. A master’s degree would roughly 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 on a variety of samples, it is a very good indicator. Here are some Fox Index levels for popular posts.

Monthly Atlantic = 12

Newsweek = 10

Reader Summary = 9

True confessions = 7

Most Comics = 6

(This item = 11.6)

The applied fog index

Below 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 multi-million dollar odds against their chances of success. They are sustained by a level of ignorance that prevents them from recognizing that the probability of such an unrealistic eventuality occurring is an order of magnitude beyond their ability to comprehend. They cling to the notion that if an event is possible, it certainly must happen out of how great the statistical odds are against it. His cry is always, “Well, someone has to win,” which is enough to block out even the brightest glare 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 more. Then a formula is applied that gives the readability index level. 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 lose hope buy lottery tickets even though the odds of them winning are enormous. What keeps them buying tickets is that they can’t understand that the odds against them are so great that they can’t really hope to win. They believe that because something is possible, it must happen regardless of the odds against it. Saying, “Well, someone has to win” is enough to prevent 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 student.

Now try it

Choose a text sample from a font that you are familiar with. It helps if it is a fairly large block of text. The larger the sample, the more accurate the index figure will be. 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 the sample. If there are hyphenated words, count each part as one word.

(My count: 120) (Your count 🙂

2. Count the number of sentences in the sample.

(My count: 5) (Your count 🙂

3. Count the number of important words in the sample: 3 or more syllables.

(My count: 3) (Your count:)>

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 percentage of big words. To do this, divide the number of big 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 important words.

(My number: 26) (Your number 🙂

7. Multiply the result by 0.4.

Fog index (My level: 10th 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.