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Readability Standards, IQ, and The Fourth Estate


of one California community college stated its “General Education Requirements” — essential information for students just out of high school —in text that required reading skills beyond those of a Ph.D.
  • Three out of four adults 60 years and older find it “hard to understand” most information in newspapers, said a study by the Federal Drug Administration.

    You say that these examples conflict with what I have said thus far, but do they? Yes, it is essential for generalized text copy to be understood by every aggregate of readership, but does this mean that we should not try to raise the aggregate level of readership? No, it does not. If each type of text we write, ascribes to the most basic reading levels, are we doing the public a service or a disservice. The latter is more likely the case.

    As writers we can use readability formulas to make writing appropriate for various levels of readers. The leading readability formulas are:
    • Automated Readability Index, this is based on an analysis of texts intended for school grades K through 7 and it is designed for automation
    • Bormuth, this is calculated from the number of letters in words and the length of the sentences
    • Coleman-Liau, this is based on the same factors as Bormuth only for text written for readership that follows through to college graduation
    • Flesch-Kincaid, this is calculated on average number of syllables in each word and average number of words in each sentence and equates results to school grades.
    • Flesch Reading Ease, this is computed using the average number of syllables in each word plus the average number of words in each sentence, it provides a score from zero to 100. The higher the score is, the greater the number of people who can understand the writing. Typical writing averages are between 60 to 70
    • Kincaid, is based on Navy training materials designed for readers from 5.5 to 16.3 grade levels and it is most useful for technical documentation
    • Gunning Fog Index, is based on 100 word selections of writing, it uses the number of words and sentences, plus the number of words with three or more syllables, then multiplication factors to compute the scale indicating school grade levels.




    Significant points on the Gunning Fog Index are:

    • 18+ Reading level of a Ph.D. (federal tax returns, insurance policies, legal documents)
    • 16 Bachelor's Degree (technical writing for industry, military or research)
    • 13+ First year of college (usually ignored
      The copyright of the article Readability Standards, IQ, and The Fourth Estate in Fourth Estate is owned by Donna L. Quesinberry. Permission to republish Readability Standards, IQ, and The Fourth Estate in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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