As a blogger, even before you hit the publish button, there’s criticism coming from Flesch. You probably have your own personal criticism about the post you just wrote. But, unknown to you Flesch has already assessed your abilities.
Some word processing programs and the Yoast SEO plugin use the Flesch Reading Ease feature. It automatically scans and scores your blog post for ease of readability and grade level comprehension.
Why should you care?
In this age of competitive media attention for eyeballs, any reader is going to give you only a few seconds of their time. Better readability …
- Slows down scanning speed
- Increases attention span
- Increases comprehension retention
- Provides greater recognition and clarity of key points
- Increases likelihood of reader return
- Enhances SEO ranking and decreases bounce rate
- Follows the trend towards brevity
In 1948, writing authority and consultant, Rudolph Flesch was a supporter of the Plain English movement. He focused on using phonics and measuring the readability of school textbooks.
Flesch introduced an algorithmic formula based on averages: the number of words per sentence and syllables per word. The results are converted into ease of reading scores and grade level reading standards.
The Flesch-Kincaid Ease of Reading test is a modification first made by the U.S. Navy and then used by the Department of Defense. Other governmental agencies adopted it to ensure consistent and appropriate reading level documents. It’s what we owe to todays’ somewhat more readable contracts, training manuals and public reports.
The Flesch-Kincaid Score Comparison
If you’re curious about the rating of your latest blog, you can click here for a free calculator and compare your score to the chart below.
| Score | School Level | Notes |
| 90.0–100.0 | 5th grade | Very easy to read. Understood by average 11-year-old. |
| 80.0–90.0 | 6th grade | Easy to read. Conversational English for consumers. |
| 70.0–80.0 | 7th grade | Fairly easy to read. |
| 60.0–70.0 | 8th & 9th grade | Plain English. Easily understood by 13- to 15-year-old. |
| 50.0–60.0 | 10th to 12th grade | Fairly difficult to read. |
| 30.0–50.0 | College | Difficult to read. |
| 0.0–30.0 | College graduate | Very difficult to read. Best understood by university graduates. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesch%E2%80%93Kincaid_readability_tests
Should you be concerned with your Flesch score?
Yes and No.
Yes, as far as it makes it easier for readers to stay connected and get value out of what you’ve posted.
No, in the sense you don’t want to turn into a robotic writer of short sentences and monosyllabic words. Nor, do you want to lose your voice, your writing character or distinctive style.
You know your audience and if they can handle the polysyllabic “big” words, long sentences and stimulating vocabulary.
Compromising Tips
However, we need to remind ourselves that writing and verbal communication is always changing within cultures. Today, we write far more informally. Our language is so flexible that we can express meaning in abbreviations, acronyms, cryptic texts and emojis. We’ve also become skilled at using less words thanks to Twitter.
We can still improve blog readability without sacrificing our style
- Write with clarity, even if it means smaller and less glamourous words
- Limit jargon, buzz words and keyword stuffing
- Use more active and less passive words ending in “ing”
- Restrict texting style to mobile communication
- Chunk down big concepts and ideas into bite size pieces
- Use subheading and bullet points judiciously (“big” word, couldn’t resist)
- Edit down and then edit down again
- Double check spelling and grammar
The Flesch score for this post is 60.1. Some tweeks have brought me right to the edge of being less difficult to read. But, being the bright, intellegenct audience that you are, I’m sure you can handle it.
How readable is your blog?
Resources:
http://www.readabilityformulas.com/flesch-reading-ease-readability-formula.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesch%E2%80%93Kincaid_readability_testshttps://yoast.com/flesch-reading-ease-score/
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Back when I worked in the corporate world as an engineer, I was constantly asked by my colleagues to read their memos and other written materials and offer suggestions. I was often pointing out many of the things the Flesch score is considering. I remember in particular this one memo a guy wrote. He handed it to me and I asked him, “What are you going to do with this?” He said, “Post it on the line for employees to follow.” I then had to explain that our workforce had a reading level of about 4th grade and his piece was written at about college level. He was surprised. So I fired up Microsoft Word, highlighted the text in his document, and had it indicate readability. Word said it was post graduate level. It made me laugh. You have to speak in simple words that everyone, even people who have English as a second language, can understand. I do that with the books I write, blog posts, marketing pieces, everything. It really does matter. Great post.
It makes you wonder that we want to go to college, get advanced degrees to get a good job and then find out we have to write for a 4th grade reading level. But, in the end we need a basic communication style that everyone can understand. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I have to embarrassedly admit. I had no idea about the Flesch score. Thank you for educating me!
With so much out there to keep track of, don’t feel embarrassed. That’s what we’re all here for is to help one another.
Thanks for the detailed breakdown, Joyce. While I had no idea of the breakdown to the different levels, I have Yoast on my wordpress site and always paid attention to whether my posts were easy to read, per Yoast.
I went back and reviewed four recent posts. Found that one was 82.2 while the others were in the 60’s. Once a month I write, what I refer to, an epic post as it’s usually pretty lengthy. My last one was 1,500 words and score was 60.7. I may aim for 70’s to 80’s hereon.
Pretty eye-opening post. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it Yvonne. I was always paying attention to the color code until I starting checking out the Flesch score. Made me more aware as I start to put my post together. I still edit to get a better score, but it’s not as bad as it use to be.
Great post Joyce! Like many others I use the built-in Flesch score in Yoast SEO and aim to get between 60 – 80. The nature of my blog is that I can use a conversational tone and I always try to use easy-to-understand language, even for the more technical posts. And my readers appreciate that, as they often find other posts on a similar technical topic difficult to read. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
You are so right Mui. Readers really appreciate it when you put it in a style and format they can readily understand. And, that’s what makes them keep coming back to you as a reliable source.
I have ignored the Flesch score because I did not know what it was about. But no longer thanks to you. Great explanation.
So glad to enlighten you. Now you know and you can cross it off your list of web obscure information.
Okay, I’m going to look at the Flesch-Kincaid tool and start using it. I read somewhere that the average NYT’s bestseller has words that average 4.2 letters/word. That’s not many, and it hammers home the idea that we MUST write for our readers! Thanks for the great post.
Joan, 4.2 letters/word yikes! That sure does limit vocabulary. Makes me feel guilty is use judiciously in the blog post. Oh, well. Guess I’m not headed for the NY Times Best Sellers List any time soon.
I do have Yoast SEO on my blog and do look at my Flesch score, as although I write longish posts, my goal is always to have it readable and conversational. I appreciated the history behind it and the points you made on both sides of the “should you pay attention to it” conversation. My aim is to have mine between 58 and 69 which I seem to be on target with. If I had to choose pleasing the Flesch score and writing and keeping the integrity of my voice and style…I’d choose the latter and stick with my message and style. Appreciate the interesting read, Joyce!
Agree Beverley, It’s more important to maintain the integrity of your voice and style. It’s what your readers come to expect from you. Bravo!
Great post! I do rely on Yoast and Flesh remarks when writing. I also use Grammarly now as well. They have an app for Chrome and it helps me with comments on posts as well. =) I am really enjoying it. I may buy the upgraded version soon too.
Thanks for mentioning Grammarly Sabrina. Did not know about it. Will check it out.
This is way cool, Joyce! I’m going to take the test now! Thank you!
Hey Susan, let us know how you scored and if it will be changing the way you write your posts.
Really liked your list of readability components and their positive impact, Joyce. Good to know this is something that can help us create even better blogs without, as you said, sacrificing our style. We definitely want to maintain our uniqueness!
There always seems to be this compromise. The established view and what makes us unique. How does one ever learn the richness of our language if we keep writing with basic, simple words? How does a reader grow if not encountering words one is unfamilar with? Some days, the best I can do is to keep my sentences shorter.
You got that right sista.. thanks for writing this… I will continue to preach this until I am blue in the face and longer! lol
Kristen, thanks for endorsing Flesch. When I was writting this, I was unsure if anybody really cared.
Great article, Joyce. I agree that it is important to keep your audience in mind when deciding how to write. I believe it is better to write so that all of them can read it easily than to go above some of your readers’ capabilities. I definitely like your first compromise tip: “Write with clarity, even if it means smaller and less glamourous words.”
Writing is a real challenge to so many of us when we start out blogging. We all come from our previous writing world. When I look back at my early posts, they’re so academic, and I thought they were so great. It’s all a process to adapt.
Yes, I heard of this and check often – mine usually come between 60-80. After reading your post I will be more aware of passive (ing) words. Thanks for all the great insights!
Glad to hear that you have been using it Teresa. It’s a great skill builder. I was a little bummed about the passive (ing). I’ll just have to pay more attention to staying in the active voice.
I use Yoast SEO plugin and consistently between between 46.1- 64.6 I was getting really frustrated reworking my posts to get the green light. Thank you for letting me know that it depends on what the content is. And, I think it also depends on who your audience is as well. I am not sure if 11th graders are going to be interested in what I have to sell. I had no idea what the Flesch test was so, thank you for this post. I have decided to keep the words to easy to understand..now run on sentences that is a whole other issues and I am sure for that I should be at about 90.0-10.0 you would thing LOL!
Karen, when I first started I didn’t pay attention to the Flesch score. I just wrote in the style that was the most comfortable for me. Unfortunately, a lot of early posts were rather academic. I’m learning to be not as wordy and shorten my sentences up. But, sometimes I’m writing in a more conversational tone and of course there are going to be run on sentences. Anyway, we get to practive and fine tune our posts every week with a very supportive audience.