8.06.2006

Welcome, Mrs. Siegelbaum's Fifth Grade Class!

If MotherGoosemouse were to check her site meter, she'd notice about a 16 hour stint on her Blinded Me with Science BlogHer post coming from my IP address.

Go there and you'll find links to all the info presented at the conference breakouts that you missed. And um, that would be me. Because I am a little embarrassed to admit, I spent far too many of the sessions either blogging, talking, or foraging for berries and edible bark thanks to a food service schedule at odds with both east coast jet lag and my blood sugar levels.

Mo G.M.'s links led to links led to links which led me to Lynne D Johnson's suggestion of exploring a readability assessment tool. In plain English: how easy is it fer peeple to follow wot yer saying on yer blog.

My results:

Average number of syllables per word: 1.44

Words with one syllable: 2669

Two syllables: 795

Three syllables: 251

(Notice how I just used three more three-syllable words by using the word syllable three times? Ha! Now it's five more!)

Flesch Reading ease (A 100 point scale, 100 being Dr Seuss and 1 being medical texts written in Aramaic. 60-70 is ideal.): 75.65

And finally, the Flesch-Kincaid Grade, or how many years of schooling it would take someone to understand the conten): 5.09

Wait til I tell my parents that my overpriced private college degree has enabled me to write at a fifth grade level. They'll be delighted. (That's another three-syllable baby right there, just in case you're keeping track.)

Try it yourself and let me know your Flesch-Kincaid Grade. I'd love to know what I'm spending most of my time reading these days.


63 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Flesch-Kincaid of 4.23 and Fox Index of 6 something. Just slightly more challenging than the TV Guide. Jeesh. I'm going to blame this on the husband's occasional post.

8/6/06, 10:32 AM  
Blogger metro mama said...

This is a hoot. I'm glad to know my blog is clearly accessible to all...

Avg # syllables: 1.44

Reading ease: 74.17

Flesch-Kincaid: 5.58

8/6/06, 11:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Some good resources, eh? I'm happy to be the kid off whom everyone else cheats. Anything to be popular...

Average # syllables: 1.46

Reading ease: 70.42

Flesch-Kincaid: 6.64

Check out the F-K algorithm...

Algorithm: 206.835 - (1.015 * average_words_sentence) - (84.6 * average_syllables_word

8/6/06, 11:04 AM  
Blogger Bea said...

Oooh, fun!

Reading ease: 68.15 (uh-oh)

Flesch-Kincaid: 7.67 (You have to be in grade seven to understand my blog!)

At least I'm still coming in just under most novels. (I wonder if they calculated The DaVinci code into that assessment?)

8/6/06, 11:10 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I will play with you at recess, since my blog is in grade 5.53. I'm feeling a little bad about this. Should I be? Back to figure out the rest. So this will require more comments (just so that will still be at grad school level, I'm no fool).

8/6/06, 11:12 AM  
Blogger Bea said...

Oops - confusion! The TV Guide/Reader's Digest/Popular Novel chart is for the Gunning Fog index - mine is 10.83, which means I am slightly less readable than Dan Brown (I always suspected as much).

Has someone tested the readability of the readability test?

8/6/06, 11:13 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Uh oh. My Flesh-Kincaid grade level is only 4.21. And the Gunning Fog index puts me a shade below Reader's Digest. Maybe I should put a little more time into composing posts...

8/6/06, 11:20 AM  
Blogger Amy said...

My Flesch-Kinkaid is 6.76, so I'm evidently as readable as "Are You There God, It's Me Margaret" and other fine pre-adolescent literature.

Flesch Reading Ease: 69.33

8/6/06, 11:40 AM  
Blogger Mom101 said...

All of this is proving what I always suspected: my readers are way smarter than I am.

8/6/06, 11:56 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Don't bank on that quite yet, Liz.

I have an average syllable per word at 1.42 and a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of 4.05.

I've never been more proud of myself.

8/6/06, 12:09 PM  
Blogger Her Bad Mother said...

75 on the nose, which puts my writing at just below a grade 6 reading level.

Must be because I transliterate all of those ancient Greek words.

That, or they're incorrectly counting WTF as a one-syllable word.

8/6/06, 12:12 PM  
Blogger J said...

Summary Value
Total sentences 891
Total words 9951
Average words per Sentence 11.17
Words with 1 Syllable 7334
Words with 2 Syllables 1884
Words with 3 Syllables 574
Words with 4 or more Syllables 159
Percentage of word with three or more syllables 7.37%
Average Syllables per Word 1.35
Gunning Fog Index 7.41
Flesch Reading Ease 81.07
Flesch-Kincaid Grade 4.73

I have a masters degree in Comp Lit, and still, not even 5th grade. Sigh.

8/6/06, 12:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm at like a 4.43.

Nice.

But if HBM is only just below 6th, that thing is f'd up.

Or, I need to go back to college.

8/6/06, 12:45 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

As i suspected i'm an idiot: 4.43 grade level, same as my oldest daughter.

8/6/06, 12:45 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm a total word nerd, so I love this!

My Flesch-Kincaid Grade is 5.51.

My Flesch Reading Ease score is 73.22.

My Fog Index is 8.24 so at least I'm up there with "popular novels." Tee hee.

8/6/06, 1:09 PM  
Blogger wordsonwater said...

Just found your great blog and regardless of fog, Flesch, Kincaid, or dark of night, don't change a thing.
I'm a bit concerned that I may generally be too obscure.
% of words with 3 or more syllables, 9.72
Fog index, 12.31
Flesch reading ease, 65.6
Flesh-Kincaid grade 9.34
average words per sentence, 21.06 (lord, I do run on)

8/6/06, 1:13 PM  
Blogger Mahlers On Safari said...

Don't you mean Mr. Taylor's 5th grade class?

8/6/06, 1:23 PM  
Blogger nonlineargirl said...

I am not sure whether to feel proud of my readability. (grade level - 4.79) Hopefully it makes up for all the big words I use on the job (insurance, portability, underinsured...snore).

8/6/06, 1:35 PM  
Blogger Dawn said...

Apparently, Mine is about 3.67. as you can see, I worked in State Government for several years and needed to accomodate appropriately.

And the kitties? Dear Jeebus....How can you resist?

8/6/06, 1:42 PM  
Blogger Cristina said...

Oh, this is depressing. I'm only at a 3rd grade reading level.

On another note, I am totally not surprised that Bub and Pie is at 10.83. I've had to pull out the dictionary to look up words reading her posts--which is a good thing, mind you. It challenges me to improve my 3rd grade skills!

8/6/06, 2:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

that looks like my fifth grade school pic! Ps 117! QUEENS!

Anyway, my score is 4.30? Yikes!!

8/6/06, 2:40 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

My turn...

Summary Value
Total sentences 676
Total words 9042
Average words per Sentence 13.38 Chatty Cathy strikes again!
Words with 1 Syllable 6216
Words with 2 Syllables 1626
Words with 3 Syllables 781
Words with 4 or more Syllables 419
Percentage of word with three or more syllables 13.27%
Average Syllables per Word 1.49
Gunning Fog Index 10.66
Flesch Reading Ease 67.07
Flesch-Kincaid Grade 7.23

This was a blast! Thanks for pointing the way.

8/6/06, 3:30 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Gunning Fog Index 7.57
Flesch Reading Ease 78.68
Flesch-Kincaid Grade 4.80

So you either need 7.5 years or 4.8 years of school to understand my blog. Either way, looks like that B.A. in English Literature isn't helping much.

Couldn't you point out which one is you in that photo? C'mon, please?

8/6/06, 3:30 PM  
Blogger Jennifer said...

I'm a low scorer, hopefully this will make someone out there feel a little bit better:

Gunning Fog Index 7.39
Flesch Reading Ease 81.83
Flesch-Kincaid Grade 4.52

8/6/06, 3:50 PM  
Blogger Amy said...

I do this every time I write. I hover between 65-80% readabilty and between 6-8th grade.

I do it because I have a terrible way of using the dreaded passive tense. My goal is always to have less than 3% passive sentences.

It is a blast, eh? Gotta love MS Word.

ps - at BU, they told us to aim for fifth-grade level. So your education did, in fact, pay off!

8/6/06, 4:15 PM  
Blogger bea said...

cool - one degree, one diploma and half-way through a Masters and I'm writing at 4th grade level (4.6 to be exact).

8/6/06, 6:19 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I wirte at the 4.89 level. And my high priced ivy league education was worth every penny of it!

8/6/06, 6:24 PM  
Blogger Sandra said...

Umm...I actually considered fudging the score before I reported back to you becauase my fancy dancy education yields only 4.43. I need to clearly add some more syllables. Off to pour myself a stiff drink.

8/6/06, 6:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

ouch, 4.38 is the grade level for my site, but the reading ease was at 74 percent which is kind of close to what they suggest you should write at... Eeek. Must Focus on Writing More Gooder.
Haha.

8/6/06, 6:54 PM  
Blogger kevin black said...

My Flesch Kinkaid is 6.03, but my average number of syllables per word is only 1.43 compared to your 1.44.

Damn you, Mom-101.

Damn you.

8/6/06, 7:20 PM  
Blogger Movin Mom said...

Mom101,
you may be a year younger than I but I would have guessed you to be more than a grade older! To be fair I am an early 4th grader and you are a late 5th grader.

Not having a college degree and also already being criticized for my spelling grammar already-I must say I thought it would be worse than 4th grade.

I should click it again and see if it gives me the same grading.

GAH LEE EYE SHOOD YOOZ LAWNGER WORDZ



Reading Level Results
Summary Value
Total sentences 755
Total words 7638
Average words per Sentence 10.12
Words with 1 Syllable 5763
Words with 2 Syllables 1303
Words with 3 Syllables 455
Words with 4 or more Syllables 117
Percentage of word with three or more syllables 7.49%
Average Syllables per Word 1.34
Gunning Fog Index 7.04
Flesch Reading Ease 83.57
Flesch-Kincaid Grade 4.12

8/6/06, 8:01 PM  
Blogger Jenny Quld said...

Readability Results
The following table contains the readability results for http://jenjenqld.blogspot.com/ .

Reading Level Results Summary Value
Total sentences 207
Total words 2467
Average words per Sentence 11.92
Words with 1 Syllable 1799
Words with 2 Syllables 484
Words with 3 Syllables 139
Words with 4 or more Syllables 45
Percentage of word with three or more syllables 7.46%
Average Syllables per Word 1.36
Gunning Fog Index 7.75
Flesch Reading Ease 79.38
Flesch-Kincaid Grade 5.15

This was a hoot,I didn't know that thes things existed, Thanks for pointing this site out!
Jen

8/6/06, 8:21 PM  
Blogger Girl con Queso said...

Reading Level Results
Summary Value

Total sentences:152
Total words:1289
Average words per Sentence:8.48
Words with 1 Syllable:886
Words with 2 Syllables:283
Words with 3 Syllables:86
Words with 4 or more Syllables:34
Percentage of word with three or more syllables: 9.31%
Average Syllables per Word:1.43
Gunning Fog Index:7.12
Flesch Reading Ease:77.07
Flesch-Kincaid Grade:4.62

February of fourth grade. Great. I knew those Lindsay Lohan posts would come back to bite me in the ass.

Or.

Maybe I'm a GENIUS...

"Brevity is the soul of wit.”
--William Shakespeare

8/6/06, 8:52 PM  
Blogger Girl con Queso said...

Or. Perhaps we are all freaking geniuses...

“The more syllables a euphemism has, the further divorced from reality it is”
--George Carlin


Think about it...

Love = 1 syllable
Politics = 3 syllables
Sex = 1 syllable
Impotence =3 syllables
Peace = 1 syllable
Terrorism = 4 syllables
Heal = 1 syllable
Chemotherapy = 5 syllables
Joy = 1 syllable
Curmudgeonliness = 5 syllables
Hug = 1 syllable
Xenophobia = 5 syllables
Rare = 1 syllable
Predictability = 6 syllables

Plus, isn't simplicity a zen thing. (Zen = 1 syllable)

8/6/06, 9:30 PM  
Blogger Mom101 said...

GCQ: In the words of that great pop God David Cassidy: I think I love you.

I know they're each just one syllable, but I won't apologize for it.

8/6/06, 9:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

A measly 5.96 reading level.

The rest was too depressing.

(oh, and KEEP THE KITTIES!)

8/6/06, 9:51 PM  
Blogger Christina said...

Well, my Flesch-Kincaid Grade is 5.35, and my Fog Index is 8.13. The Flesch Reading Ease is 77.39. So I guess I'm right in the middle of everyone - at a decent level so most people can read what I write, but not so simple that little kids are getting the sex jokes. Whew.

8/6/06, 9:55 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Not sure how I hit a 6th grade reading level with my 9 mos. pregnant brain. But it has to be better than when I tried to add several columns of numbers today ... carry the one. I'm still figuring that one out.

Average words per Sentence
12.86
Words with 1 Syllable
5552
Words with 2 Syllables
1503
Words with 3 Syllables
510
Words with 4 or more Syllables
213
Percentage of word with three or more syllables
9.30%
Average Syllables per Word
1.41
Gunning Fog Index
8.86
Flesch Reading Ease
74.79
Flesch-Kincaid Grade
6.02

8/6/06, 10:02 PM  
Blogger Perstephone said...

Total sentences 430

Total words 4960

Average words per Sentence 11.53

Words with 1 Syllable 3594

Words with 2 Syllables 953

Words with 3 Syllables 307

Words with 4 or more Syllables 106

Percentage of word with three or more syllables 8.33%

Average Syllables per Word 1.38

Gunning Fog Index 7.94

Flesch Reading Ease 78.38

Flesch-Kincaid Grade 5.19


Well, I guess it's a good thing I did go back and get that M.A. in English, eh? Imagine how awful my score would be without it.

8/6/06, 10:39 PM  
Blogger Chris said...

Here's mine:

Gunning Fog Index: 6.90
Flesch Reading Ease: 77.82
Flesch-Kincaid Grade: 4.30

So this means I'm an idiot, right? Oh well.

8/6/06, 10:43 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i... uh... er... um....

meant to do some..thing... else...

...it was an accident my coming... here.

jeepers. i didn't know today was "my blog is smarter than your blog" day! yeesh. and an instant classification, to boot? holy crap! instead of crafting a brilliant multi-syllabic missive today, i went to see a really stupid (yet surprisingly funny) movie which did nothing to inflate my score and/or enhance the content of my blog.

i'll just take my low brow sensibilities over to some blog with 2nd grade level writing.... where someone's idea of hilarity is fart jokes and bad puns. (apparently that's where i belong.) xox

8/6/06, 11:05 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Okay... I'm back, checking out scores, etc. I'm totally confused because I didn't pay attention to the 60-70 being ideal on the readability score. I thought the higher the better and thought it interesting that the higher the grade level the lower the ease of reading score. Oh well, what I am curious about now is that picture. That can't be your class picture, can it? You weren't even born yet, were you? 'Fess up, woman!

8/6/06, 11:50 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Fog: 9.19; Flesch Ease: 70; Flesch Grade: 6.36.

Also: 11.4% of my words contain three or more syllables. Apparently I'm just another man obsessed with length.

8/6/06, 11:55 PM  
Blogger Mom101 said...

And, LOD, I'm just another woman who says I don't care about length when actually I do.

8/7/06, 12:07 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

OMG. I have a 4.97. I didn't realize I was so lame. Dude. Maybe I shouldn't keep saying "Dude." I thought I was smarter. I is real smart, ya hear?

8/7/06, 12:28 AM  
Blogger Lady M said...

The readability test was one more thing I wrote down in my conference notes and then totally forgot. Thanks for the link!

Flesch-Kincaid Grade 6.4

I'm trying to think about what I wrote in 6th grade. I know I contributed some really bad limerick poetry to the class magazine. Bad as in poorly written, not x-rated, you naughty people!

8/7/06, 12:54 AM  
Blogger carrie said...

I didn't know that I was writing for 8th grade students!!!! Guess I better grab a copy of Teen People and start taking notes.

Carrie

8/7/06, 3:09 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I know many of you actually went to the conference, and I didn't, so I could be totally missing the context of hte post and the comments--but you all did know that a lower score is a better score, right? Whenever I've read about readability tests, it's stated that a grade 4 result is the ideal. You definitely want under grade 10.

In other words, what this proves is that you all are very good writers.

(FWIW, I got a 5.7 on the grade index and a readability scale of about 80, so not bad.)

8/7/06, 9:21 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That was a fun exercise! I'm at a sixth grade level. See mommy use big words!

8/7/06, 10:22 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow who knew I was writing for 3rd graders. Slightly easier reading than the Reader's Digest.

8/7/06, 10:25 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

i write for fifth-graders TOOO!
(5.39)

Flesch Reading Ease: 74.50.

Oh, and I bear everyone here hands down with the "I got a masters degree for this..."
try PHD in ENGERSLISH, mofos.

In a nutshell--I have wasted a massive portion of my life. Huzzah!!!

Actually, I think this score is good. It shows I am rhetorically sensitive--as are we all. Sure, I could throw in posts about the epistemological premises of this, and the deconstructive, poststructural leanings of THAT. (it'd be a BLAST)

but I would like at least one person to read what i am writing. so tits and willies it is...

speaking of literacy--could there BE any more letters in your word verification? i am now on THIRD go. (i know, i know--better that than spamments. sigh...)

my brain 'urts....

8/7/06, 12:29 PM  
Blogger Mayberry said...

Oh yeah. 5th grade here too. I do take some pride in my "Gunning-Fog index," which reveals my writing level (8.07) to be well above TV guides (6) and just barely atop Reader's Digest (8).

8/7/06, 1:27 PM  
Blogger Andrea said...

Well, I'm at a third, almost fourth grade level at 3.75. Gunning Fog index 6.65 and reading ease 83.21.

But I'm better than TV Guide with that GF index? I'll take it.

When they come up with a measure for hilarity and heart, let me know. I bet you'd be off the charts, Missy.

8/7/06, 1:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

80.60 Flesch Reading Ease
3.88 Flesch-Kincaid Grade

Oy. Guess I'm going back to finish up that MA in Literature just in time. My teachers would be SO proud.

(Though I'm betting that if any one of us wrote a post on deconstruction or epistemology RIGHT NOW and then re-took that test we'd score higher.)

8/7/06, 7:33 PM  
Blogger the mystic said...

Hey, totally cool quiz. I got 72.25 (where 60-70 is ideal). I guess I won't apply for any Aramaic medical textbook writing jobs. But I got a 6.87 on the next one, so you ALMOST need to have gotten to the seventh grade to understand me.

I'd better scour my blog and make sure I've never made any passing references to believing myself to be an intellectual.

8/8/06, 12:58 AM  
Blogger Sherry said...

It isn't working on my blog! *sobs*

8/8/06, 9:32 AM  
Blogger Binky said...

Gunning Fog Index 8.20
Flesch Reading Ease 77.13
Flesch-Kincaid Grade 5.34

I'm actually really happy to see these results, because sometimes I worry that I'm too wordy and obscure. Little did I know, I'm practically Dr. Freaking Seuss. Loved this link.

8/8/06, 3:59 PM  
Blogger Kristen said...

Crap. My writing is apparently at a fifth grade level, too. And my Flesch-Kincaid Grade was around 74 as well. 12.45 words per sentence on average, so somewhere between WSJ and The Times?

8/8/06, 4:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Mine was pretty close to Kristen's and yours:

Flesch Reading Ease 76.68

Flesch-Kincaid Grade 5.57

Average words per Sentence 12.11

Three college educated women and we all write at a level that one must have completed only the 5th grade to comprehend. Hmmm. I guess I'll just be glad it's not 4th grade :)

8/9/06, 9:04 PM  
Blogger JChevais said...

Fog index: 7.9
Reading Ease: 79.2
Grade: 4

After Izzy's comment, I am so ashamed. Good thing I wasn't a writing major in college... :-)

8/11/06, 8:35 AM  
Blogger Teacher lady said...

I'm writing at the fourth grade level. And I'm two years into a doctorate program in education. Two years of grading my students' papers have definitely had a deleterious effect on my own discourse.

8/11/06, 10:11 PM  
Blogger ms blue said...

After reading Mrs. Chicky's Word post, I discovered that I had missed out on this fun piece while on vacation.

It seems many of us are hanging in fifth grade.

Average Syllables per Word 1.42
Gunning Fog Index 8.19
Flesch Reading Ease 76.07
Flesch-Kincaid Grade 5.17

At least I have a few years of writing before my oldest daughter can comprehend my nonsense.

8/18/06, 12:48 PM  
Blogger Teacherlizz said...

Thanks for this blog - this thing has just been added to classblogmeister and I had no idea what it was - now I know. And now I know how my kids are going with their writing - very interesting.

Thanks again :)

9/12/07, 1:24 AM  

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