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Readability Standards, IQ, and The Fourth Estate


ignored and/or misunderstood by most adults)
  • 12 High School graduates (Harper's Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly)
  • 11 High School Juniors (Time, The Wall Street Journal)
  • 10 High School Sophomores (Reader's Digest, Saturday Evening Post)
  • 7 Seventh grade (most of the Bible)
  • 6 Sixth grade (too simple to hold the interest of most adults)

    The formulas of some of the better-recognized readability standards follow:

    Flesch-Kincaid Formula, this is a US Government Department of Defense standard test.
    (i) Calculate L, the average sentence length (number of words ÷ number of sentences). Estimate the number of sentences to the nearest tenth, where necessary.

    (ii) Calculate N, the average number of syllables per word (number of syllables ÷ number of words).

    (iii) Then grade level = (L × 0.39) + (N × 11.8) - 15.59

    So Reading Age = (L × 0.39) + (N × 11.8) - 10.59 years

    As everyone who uses Microsoft Word probably recognizes the Flesch-Kincaid readability standard formula is a result of utilizing the spell check feature. There are a lot of "other" facts presented resultant of a spell check that summarize documents. Flesch-Kincaid is the recognized readability standard component in this summary. Standard writing (a score of 60-70) equates to the seventh and eighth grade levels. Items such as health brochures are recommended to be presented for reading at sixth grade levels.

    Powers-Sumner-Kearl Formula, this is the only one of the formulae suitable for primary age books.
    Select samples of 100 words.

    (i) Calculate L, the average sentence length (number of words ÷ number of sentences)

    (ii) then estimate the number of sentences to the nearest tenth

    (iii) Count N, the number of syllables per 100 words

    (iv) Then grade level = (L × 0.0778) + (N × 0.0455) - 2.2029

    So Reading Age = (L × 0.0778) + (N × 0.0455) + 2.7971 years.

    This test is NOT suitable for secondary age books, it is most suitable for material in the 7 -10 age ranges.

    McLaughlin 'SMOG' Formula, select samples of 30 consecutive sentences. In each sample, count the number of words with 3 or more syllables.

    (i) Find the average number, N

    (ii) Then grade level = (square root of N) + 3.

    (iii) Reading Age = (square root of N) + 8 years.

    This test provides higher values than
    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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