tangor - 5:27 pm on Nov 26, 2011 (gmt 0)

One way to engage readers is to write something they can read!

I created the following sentence and popped it into a number of "text reading score" (Bing search) apps/widgets on the web and scored it.

Writing for comprehension is a difficult task at best, thus long established writers will make every effort to maintain a clear, concise, and simple text without obfuscation.

Which scored:

Readability Formula Grade Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 15.00 Gunning-Fog Score 18.20 Coleman-Liau Index 15.60 SMOG Index 12.90 Automated Readability Index 17.20 Average Grade Level 15.78

I then sent the following sentence, which says the SAME THING:

If you want readers to understand what you've written, keep it simple, clear, and concise.

Readability Formula Grade Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 6.00 Gunning-Fog Score 8.70 Coleman-Liau Index 12.10 SMOG Index 6.00 Automated Readability Index 8.40 Average Grade Level 8.24

Depending on your topic, you'll want to match the readability index to the content.

In lieu of using web-based solutions, most word processor programs contain one or more of the above text scoring methods.

Do YOU use any of the above methods to check the content presented on your web sites?