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Dice Darwin

Topic: Readability

I came across an interesting bit in a blog about the readability of a writer's prose. It's far too long to post in this forum, so here's the gist of it:

Some guy took ten bestselling novels, one each by Fannie Flagg, Kaye Gibbons, John Grisham, Jan Karon, Stephen King, Elmore Leonard, Terry McMillan, Anna Quindlen, Danielle Steel, and Wallace Stegner. And then he ran them through his grammar checker to find out what the Flesch-Kincaid scale said about them. The average score in four separate categories was as follows:

The amount of passive voice the writers used ranged from 2.3% to 13.43%.

The number of characters per word ranged from 3.72 to 4.58.

The readability ranged from 72.34% to 91.84%, with an average of 83.1%.

On the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level scale, the range was 2.68 to 6.3, with an average grade level of 4.4.

I guess he found that the bestselling writers were aiming their prose, prose that is read by a majority of adult readers in the country, at a fourth grade level. So he created his Ideal Writing Standard and said that from now on, he revises all his work to the following four standards PER ANY SCENE:

No more than 4.25 characters per word.

No more than 5% passive voice

No less than an 80% readability on the Flesch Reading Ease scale.

A Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of 5.

Okay, I wasn't just going to accept this without testing my own writing. Now here's my scores for the only two chapters of my recently deleted story One Night Run:

Characters per word: 4.4

Passive voice: 3%

Flesch Reading Ease score: 81.5

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 4.7

So what do you all think of this? It's suprising how close my scores are to those above. Then again, I write like that on purpose, so maybe it shouldn't be.

Anyway, I'm not taking it as gospel or anything, and I know writing is about far more than statistics, but I think its at least worth considering. Why don't you all take a chapter from your best story and run it through the same test? Its in Microsoft Word if you have it. Post your stats here.

#1 Feb 07th 2007, 9:23pm . Edited Feb 07th 2007, 9:25pm

Royal Bliss

I think it's on the newer version of Microsoft Word.. I just have MS Word 7.0 not 8.0.. I'll do it in class though, they have MS Word 8.

Oh son of a bitch. I have MS Word version 5.0?

#2 Feb 07th 2007, 9:52pm . Edited Feb 07th 2007, 9:54pm

Dice Darwin

Don't worry about it. Its not that big a deal. I was just wondering if this was just some random internet bullshit or not. For all I know, everyone's writing could have stats within that range. I'm just curious.

#3 Feb 08th 2007, 2:19am

Royal Bliss

Characters per word: 4.3

Passive voice: 2%

Flesch reading ease: 77.4%

Flesch-Kincaid grade level: 4.7

Man I think I kind of blow..

#4 Feb 09th 2007, 6:37am

The Ferrett

Hi all.

I get

Chars 4.2

Passive 4%

Flech 74.9%

Grade 5.9%

So I'm close but no cigar.

#5 Mar 01st 2007, 3:44am

Sakka-Fenikkusu

Can't find it, and I'm really curious. Tell me step-by-step where... or not.

#6 Mar 06th 2007, 8:42am

Alice Potato

Can't find it, and I'm really curious. Tell me step-by-step where

Yeah, I'd love to know where to find this, as well.

#7 Mar 06th 2007, 9:58am

The Ferrett

spell check options and enable readability statistiocs. The you have to spell check each time you want to check.

#8 Mar 06th 2007, 3:33pm

Ranmyaku no Tenshi

Wow... I never knew that was there before. That is really kewl.

#9 Mar 20th 2007, 8:10pm

Kumquat21

I'm sad though - only word has that. My writing computer is works so I miss out on all this cool stuff . . . *Sniff*

#10 Apr 19th 2007, 12:46pm

TaleForge

I just did that:

Characters: 4.2

Passive Sentences:3%

Reading Ease:77.3%

Grade Level: 4.8

I kinda thought the grade level would be higher, but that's just my ego, I suppose.

#11 Apr 22nd 2007, 1:35pm

Kumquat21

I kinda thought the grade level would be higher, but that's just my ego, I suppose.

Yeah, when my other computer was working, (and I had word) I used to get 4.0s and 3.5's all the time, and think . . .

-___________- "oh."

#12 Apr 22nd 2007, 1:44pm

Ranmyaku no Tenshi

It is odd. I tried this with both my story, Cellophane Girl*, and with my school papers. My story and my history paper came out massively different than everything else I wrote. It strikes me as weird.

Cellophane Girl*:

Characters - 3.8

Passive Voice - 7%

Reading Ease - 75.9

Grade Level - 7.7

*not yet posted if you were wondering

Number 43: The Decisions of the Decider:

Characters - 5.1/ 5.0

Passive Voice - 13%/ 14%

Reading Ease - 36.9/ 34.4

Grade Level - 12.9/ 14.9

(Full Draft/ Body Only)

Other Papers:

Characters - 4.4 (4.2-4.6)

Passive Voice - 19% (10-28%)

Reading Ease - 61.3 (57.4-66.3)

Grade Level - 10.1 (9.5-10.7)

[Mean (Range)]

#13 Apr 24th 2007, 4:45pm

Kumquat21

This is odd. Why is your history paper so much more?

#14 May 02nd 2007, 11:53am

Will Sachiksy

People tend to use more advanced words in their essays for school in the hopes that a better vocabulary equals a better grade. Or maybe your teacher will take off points if you don't use specific terms from your course (ex. stoichiometry in chemistry).

According to the results, my story Most Loving Mere Folly is perfectly salable.

Characters per word: 4.2

Passive Voice: 0% (I didn't believe it either)

Flesch Reading Easy score: 81.7

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 4.5

I guess people won't mind the metafictional aspect of it.

#15 May 02nd 2007, 4:27pm . Edited May 02nd 2007, 4:45pm

Ranmyaku no Tenshi

No... even when compared to my other school papers my history paper is a freak. I have no idea why it just is.

#16 May 22nd 2007, 9:37am

Blackbird552

For my story 2055:

Characters per word: 4.3

Words per sentence: 10.9

Passive sentences: 5%

Reading ease: 71.8

Grade level: 5.9

#17 Aug 06th 2007, 3:46pm

Evelyn O' Sullivan

Hmmm... cant find this option.

#18 Aug 09th 2007, 5:30pm

alittlebitconfused

Yay! My prologues pretty darn close!

Characters per word: 3.7

Passive Voice: 4%

Flesch Reading Ease: 91.4 (Wow...)

Flesch-Kincaid Reading Level: 2.5 (And then the grade level for Chapter One jumps to 6.2...)

#19 Dec 30th 2007, 11:56am

Outlaw02 Extreme

Well here's mine for Racer 666: Shutokou Wars (Did the overall check from the prologue till the latest chapter...)

Characters per word: 4.4

Passive Sentences: 6%

Flesch Reading Ease: 65.8

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 7.2

#20 Dec 30th 2007, 9:17pm

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