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general discussion » Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score

dannyp's avatar
16 years ago
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dannyp
dʎuuɐp

Rates text on a U.S. school grade level. For example, a score of 8.0 means that an eighth grader can understand the document. For most documents, aim for a score of approximately 7.0 to 8.0.

The formula for the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score is:

(.39 x ASL) + (11.8 x ASW) – 15.59

where:

ASL = average sentence length (the number of words divided by the number of sentences)

ASW = average number of syllables per word (the number of syllables divided by the number of words)

- MS Word
dannyp's avatar
16 years ago
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dannyp
dʎuuɐp
I'm required to write at least a 10, and I'm sucking at it. I'm still trying to figure out how to do the statistics in Office 2007. In office 2003:

Tools => Options => Spelling & Grammar tab
select: Check grammar with spelling
select: Show readability statistics

Click Spelling and Grammar on toolbar to run check. Your score is at the bottom. Make sure only the stuff that's regular sentences is selected when run.
dannyp's avatar
16 years ago
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dannyp
dʎuuɐp
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dannyp's avatar
16 years ago
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dannyp
dʎuuɐp
Scratch that, Office 2007:

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Word Options.
2. Click Proofing.
3. Make sure Check grammar with spelling is selected.
4. Under When correcting grammar in Word, select the Show readability statistics check box.

lucas's avatar
16 years ago
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lucas
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my term paper on love from fall 06:

counts
words: 2475
characters: 11951
paragraphs: 23
sentences: 153

averages
sentences per paragraph: 9.0
words per sentence: 16.0
characters per word: 4.6

readability
passive sentences: 11%
flesch reading ease: 59.5
flesch-kincaid grade level: 8.8



:(
lucas's avatar
16 years ago
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lucas
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my final exam for my feminism class, spring 07:

counts
words: 1915
characters: 9747
paragraphs: 20
sentences: 101

averages
sentences per paragraph: 7.7
words per sentence: 18.7
characters per word: 4.9

readability
passive sentences: 15%
flesch reading ease: 47.6
flesch-kincaid grade level: 11.0



:D

\o/
dannyp's avatar
16 years ago
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dannyp
dʎuuɐp
The following are my cultural anthropology essay results according to flesch-kincaid.

Race essay:

counts
words: 1244
characters: 6162
paragraphs: 102
sentences: 66

averages
sentences per paragraph: 2.6
words per sentence: 16.4
characters per word: 4.7

readability
passive sentences: 16%
flesch reading ease: 51.4
flesch-kincaid grade level: 10.1



Economics essay:

counts
words: 1287
characters: 5230
paragraphs: 237
sentences: 56

averages
sentences per paragraph: 7
words per sentence: 18.6
characters per word: 4.3

readability
passive sentences: 10%
flesch reading ease: 62.9
flesch-kincaid grade level: 9.0



Custom Society, and it's destruction essay

counts
words: 1540
characters: 7807
paragraphs: 16
sentences: 74

averages
sentences per paragraph: 7.4
words per sentence: 20.6
characters per word: 4.9

readability
passive sentences: 27%
flesch reading ease: 43.1
flesch-kincaid grade level: 12.2

dannyp's avatar
16 years ago
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dannyp
dʎuuɐp
that last one was intense near-mcriddleshitz material.
dannyp's avatar
16 years ago
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dannyp
dʎuuɐp
$s/it\'s/its
lucas's avatar
16 years ago
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lucas
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lots of passive voice.

we need the "dp-lr mcriddle level"
nestor's avatar
16 years ago
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nestor
nestor
some kantian essay:


words: 1723
characters: 9038
paragraphs: 14
sentences: 48

averages
sentences per paragraph: 4.0
words per sentence: 35.6
characters per word: 5.1

readability
passive sentences: 8%
flesch reading ease: 27.1
flesch-kincaid grade level: 12.0



Mind you I'm on mac:office 2004. AFAIK Offices prior to 2007 only have grade levels up to 12.0. I think that becuase I tested all of my philosophy essays and they were all 12.0. I'm not *that* consistent...
lucas's avatar
16 years ago
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lucas
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whut

this is actually what i hate about our philosophy program. i'll try to be all abstract and mcriddlin' (which is what i love) and i'll get back my paper with suggestions for like twenty examples. so then i add very straightforward paragraphs so that a 5th grader understands:

"suppose that you kill your cat by dousing it with gasoline and lighting it. while this may seem to be ..."

ugh. you go read sartre or heidegger or husserl and tell me how many examples they use. oh.. none.
dannyp's avatar
16 years ago
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dannyp
dʎuuɐp
I wonder what the deal is with the paragraph lengths? I have huge paragraph lengths apparently, they don't seem so long from what I can tell. I need to bulk up on active sentences for sure!

Pretty stupid that you have to do that with your papers lr...
nestor's avatar
16 years ago
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nestor
nestor
yeah, my pape wasn't mad abstract, iirc, it had a few examples, but i think my writing style lends itself to long sentences. which really isn't that good at all, but hey, i aced the essay, i'm not complaining.
dannyp's avatar
16 years ago
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dannyp
dʎuuɐp
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dannyp's avatar
16 years ago
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dannyp
dʎuuɐp
do you have brief sentences too giving you the average length you have?

likeholyshit:

nestor: words per sentence: 35.6

lucas's avatar
16 years ago
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lucas
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yeah, me and dp are both around 20 words per sentence, nestor is at 35.

how is that even possible?! :o
nestor's avatar
16 years ago
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nestor
nestor

A utilitarian would point out that any person striving to spread good will or even obey the categorical imperative merely serves as a means to an end, namely, the propagation of a good will that exists outside of the rational sphere by necessity.



Here's an above-average length sentence. Doesn't seem too long to me.
lucas's avatar
16 years ago
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lucas
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well, it's a sentence that i have to read at least a few times, fwiw.
lucas's avatar
16 years ago
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lucas
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16 years ago
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jason
comes outta nowhere
does anyone find plugging a paper into a formula mildly pedantic? seems like you could just use a lot of semicolons and compound sentences. to me, conciseness is a sign of skilled writing. using flowery language and elaborate sentences often means you don't have much to say.
dannyp's avatar
16 years ago
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dannyp
dʎuuɐp
mildly? ha.

If I wasn't aware that I was graded partially on this metric I think I would care next to nil.
nestor's avatar
16 years ago
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nestor
nestor
I don't know, kant was hella prolix but he was also damn smart.
asemisldkfj's avatar
16 years ago
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asemisldkfj
the law is no protection
essay on Sir Gawain & The Green Knight from Fall '06:

counts
words: 1165
characters: 6092
paragraphs: 17
sentences: 56

averages
sentences per paragraph: 4.3
words per sentence: 20.5
characters per word: 5.0

readability
passive sentences: 10%
flesch reading ease: 38.5
flesch-kincaid grade level: 12.0



I wonder how much the references page screwed that up.

essay on the movie Born on the Fourth of July done for Abnormal Psychology this Spring:

counts
words: 2669
characters: 13738
paragraphs: 23
sentences: 133

averages
sentences per paragraph: 7.8
words per sentence: 19.9
characters per word: 5.0

readability
passive sentences: 12%
flesch reading ease: 41.7
flesch-kincaid grade level: 12.0

phi_'s avatar
16 years ago
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phi_
... and let the Earth be silent after ye.
asemi is a literary bad ass.
asemisldkfj's avatar
16 years ago
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asemisldkfj
the law is no protection
review of some periodical article for my Educational Psychology course:

counts
words: 652
characters: 3404
paragraphs: 8 (actually only 3, I dunno why it thinks there are 8)
sentences: 19

averages
sentences per paragraph: 6.3 (probably wrong too)
words per sentence: 33.0
characters per word: 5.0

readability
passive sentences: 15%
flesch reading ease: 38.3
flesch-kincaid grade level: 15.7 (woo!)



another periodical article review for the same class:

counts
words: 663
characters: 3689
paragraphs: 7 (again, actually only 3)
sentences: 26

averages
sentences per paragraph: 8.6
words per sentence: 24.9
characters per word: 5.4

readability
passive sentences: 11%
flesch reading ease: 27.0
flesch-kincaid grade level: 15.6



summary of a proposed research paper for Culturally Responsive Education:

counts
words: 527
characters: 2686
paragraphs: 5 (this might be right this time, I'm not sure)
sentences: 20

averages
sentences per paragraph: 5.0
words per sentence: 25.3
characters per word: 4.9

readability
passive sentences: 0%
flesch reading ease: 41.4
flesch-kincaid grade level: 13.7



another paper for this same class. about the same length, 2 pages or so.

counts
words: 508
characters: 2679
paragraphs: 10 (this is wayyy off)
sentences: 18

averages
sentences per paragraph: 3.6
words per sentence: 27.2
characters per word: 5.1

readability
passive sentences: 33% (woops)
flesch reading ease: 38.2
flesch-kincaid grade level: 14.3



longer paper (5-6 pages) I wrote for Developmental Psychopathology. I think this paper is pretty bad. I hate this class and didn't really try. let's see what Word thinks.

counts
words: 1325
characters: 7372
paragraphs: 7
sentences: 49

averages
sentences per paragraph: 7.0
words per sentence: 27.0
characters per word: 5.4

readability
passive sentences: 18%
flesch reading ease: 21.5
flesch-kincaid grade level: 16.9



I was just reading about these Flesch scores and they're pretty silly if you're trying to get anything out of them other than the level of vocabulary and sentence length.

someone should do some sort of statistical analysis of these data.
phi_'s avatar
16 years ago
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phi_
... and let the Earth be silent after ye.
Show off.
Fsmart's avatar
15 years ago
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Fsmart
Here is a 27 page paper I wrote for Econometrics II. It was pretty bad. I am not surprised the readability difficulty was ranked pretty high. ~27 pages with extra material

counts
words: 4103
characters: 21904
paragraphs: 50
sentences: 167

averages
sentences per paragraph: 5.2
words per sentence: 24.1
characters per word: 5.2

readability
passive sentences: 11%
flesch reading ease: 28.2
flesch-kincaid grade level: 15.3