What Is a Good Flesch Kincaid Grade Level

Have you ever had to read something two or three times? Still cannot understand what the writer is trying to tell you? You are not alone, and part of the problem is a lack of readability. Successful communication means your target reader understands what they read without access to a dictionary. That is where the Flesch-Kincaid score can give you confidence your webpages, briefs, and reports are understandable by your target audience.

From its early start with the US Navy in the seventies, the Flesch Kincaid system for producing understandable written information has expanded across education, business, and webpages.

What is Flesch-Kincaid readability?

The Flesch-Kincaid reading level is simply a measure of how easily a reader can understand a piece of writing. The Flesch reading ease score uses age-related grading to give an idea of accessibility. Half of US adults can't read above Grade 8, and only 2% class as highly literate.

Flesch-Kincaid involves two rating scales:

• Flesch-Kincaid reading ease score with a rating from 0 to 100. A high number indicates less complicated text. Business writing aims for a score of 65 or more.
• Reading grade level converts the reading ease into a reading age in line with the US education system. The seventh grade shows writing that is understandable by ages 12-13.

Ease	Grade	Age	Reading Style
100-121	N/A	Young	Dr. Suess gets close. One syllable words and with learning to read style.
90-100	5	10-11	Simple language with short sentences (average 8 words) and simple words (average 123 syllables per 100 words)
80-90	6	11-12	Conversational style with slightly longer sentences (average 11 words) and a sprinkling of longer words (131 syllables per 100 words).
70-80	7	12-13	Easy reading a bit more length (14-word sentences) and complexity (139 syllables per 100 words). Huffington Post aims its writing at this level.
60-70	8,9	13-15	Plain English and most business writing aim at this level. Longer sentences (17 words average) and some longer words (147 syllables per 100 words). Understandable by most adults.
50-60	10,11,12	15-18	Difficulty increasing with longer sentences and multi-syllable words.
30-50	College Student	18 plus	Difficult. Most States insist that insurance policies have a score of 45 or more. Harvard Law review scores in the 30s.
10-30	Graduate	21 plus	University writing often with many technical words.
0-10	Professionals	21 plus	Highly technical writing with professional jargon.

Why does Flesch Kincaid matter?

Writers seek readers – blog, web pages, product brochures, or the great American novel; writing is worthless without readers. Communication with the written word means your reader must quickly understand, or they stop reading. When your words are on the web, it means you lose your audience as they bounce away to your competitors.

The Flesh-Kincaid grade level matters because you need to match your reader's expectations and ability with your writing style. But it's not a one-size-fits-all strategy. Some writing must be technical with longer sentences and words. The audience for that writing expects and understands the content.

Writing for a broad audience on the web means understanding that the average American reads at reading grade level 8 (FK score 60-80). Your audience may be International, and English is not their primary language. Plus, someone in a hurry wants their information in easy-to-digest chunks. The Flesch Kincaid score is a writing and content tool that helps you draft your pitch at the right level for your audience.

How is the readability/grade level score calculated? (Formula visual)

The Flesch-Kincade score depends on:

• Sentences – the average number of words in a sentence. A 29-word sentence puts you firmly in the 0-30 section – less than 2% of adult readers. Shorter sentences are easier for humans and search engines.
• Syllable count – longer words have more syllables. A syllable count of 147 per 100 words (scores 60-70) means less than half the words exceed one syllable.

It sounds complicated, but if you want a high Flesch reading ease score, keep your sentences short and sweet. That sentence scores 71.8. Dropping the first five words (t sounds complicated, but) increases the readability to 84.5. Using the Flesh-Kincaid scoring system helps you write concisely and with less fluff. Flesch-Kincaid Reading ease score = 206.835 – (1.015 x average words in a sentence) – (84.6 x average syllables in a word)

How you can use the Flesch-Kincaid score to improve your copywriting

Writing for different audiences requires different styles and approaches. However, even the most technical science paper benefits from excellent readability. Rudolph Flesch began his research as a supporter of the Plain English campaign. Writing today takes many forms:

• Website copy – varies from simple directions to detailed landing pages.
• Advertising – you need to hook your audience and get your message across.
• Contact terms and conditions – more technical terms but plain English where possible.
• SEO – language matches people's search intentions and may be complex in parts.
• Novels -some are brain candy, and some are intentionally more challenging.
• Research papers – writing academic papers requires technical language and style.
• Social media – short, snappy, and quickly grab attention.
• Blogs and articles – compete for attention and retention on the page.

Before writing anything, you need to know what your audience expects and why you want someone to read it. You don't write an academic paper in the form of a blog post – your audience has a different expectation. Suppose you want to turn the information in that research article into a popular science blog post? Now, you want the simpler, less complicated, and engaging language to attract a different audience. Use a readability test to check your writing level as part of your editing and polishing stage. Then you improve your writing at all levels.

For most content writing aiming for a Flesch-Kincaid score between 60 and 80 gives an informative fuss-free style with:

• Shorter sentences – try and keep all your sentences below 20 words. Shorter sentences improve your search engine rankings because they are easier to crawl.
• Simple words to convey the meaning – one or two syllables are easy to digest. Challenge yourself to find the briefest word available.
No surplus words. If the sentence makes sense when you cross out the word, remove it and shorten your sentence.

Check Flesch Kincaid to tune your writing style and approach to meet your audience on the page.

Flesch Test Formula vs. other Readability Formulas

Flesh-Kincaid readability test may be the best-known, but there are other approaches with different scoring numbers:

Gunning FOG Formula

Robert Gunning, the author of The Technique of Clear Writing, uses this formula for his FOG index:

FOG rating = 0.4 (Average sentence length + Hard words percentage)

A "hard word" is a three or more syllable word that is not:
• Proper noun
• Hyphenated easy words
• Two syllable word with an -es or -ed ending
• The ideal score is 7-8, with a 12-score classing as difficult

SMOG Readability Formula

This formula uses ten sample sentences from the beginning, middle, and end of a text to grade the writing for reading age or educational level. You count all the words with three or more syllables (every time the word appears) in the sample text of 30 sentences.

SMOG grade = 3 + √number of words of three syllables plus.

A conversion table matches the SMOG score to an education grade level. 7th-grade text scores 13-20 and higher SMOG scores show complex text.

Coleman-Liau Index

This readability formula relies on letter count rather than syllables.

Readability score = (0.588 x average number of letters per 100 words) – (0.296 x average number of sentences per 100 words) -15.8

The calculated index matches a US education grade level. For accuracy, you need a minimum of 300 words.

Linsear Write Readability Formula

The US Airforce developed this readability grading system for their manuals. It uses a 100-word sample. All one to two-syllable (easy) words score 1, and all three-syllable or more (hard) words score 3.

The calculation process takes the following stage:

•number of easy words + (number of hard words x 3)
•Divide that number by the number of sentences.
•If the answer is over 20, divide by 2; if 20 or less, reduce by 2 and divide by 2.

The answer equates to the grade level.

Readability in Creative Writing vs. Business writing

Although business writing can be creative and original, it does class as creative writing.

Business writing aims to transfer information from one brain to another with written words. In the interest of clear understanding, business writing is concise and to the point. Most business writing persuades with a call to action:

• Make this decision.
• Agree with this view.
• Follow these safety guidelines.
• Learn this process.
• Buy this product.
• Sign up for a subscription.

Creative writing covers plenty of different forms – fiction and nonfiction and can:

• Create change by holding up a mirror to injustice.
• Inspire reflection and self-development.
• Entertain and educate.
• Exist as artwork.

Both business writers and creative writers seek readers, and readability is essential for both types of writing. Creative writing is not an excuse for long-winded, self-indulgent sentences that are hard to read and understand – unless you write only for yourself and are a diarist rather than a creative writer.

Purple prose is unwelcome and unproductive in both business and creative writing. A writing level checker and readability score benefit the creative and the business writer producing work that encourages the reader to engage at the appropriate level.

Summary

The Flesch-Kincaid score is one of the tools available to writers to:

• Refine your writing to match your target audience.
• Improve SEO appeal and ranking.
• Produce fresh, lively text that retains your reader.
• Sharpen your writing style.

Attention spans are short, and readers want to get to the meat of the text . The message is to use short sentences and words to say what you mean. The best writing is unnoticed – it is the vehicle that delivers your message.

What Is a Good Flesch Kincaid Grade Level

Source: https://vargainc.com/clear-and-confident-with-flesch-kincaid/

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