This might happen with you often; you are in the middle of reading an article and you realise that you have been reading the same thing again and again. You try hard to grasp the meaning of the sentence but it still does not get into your head.
Most readers may spend too much time on sentences because they are too complicated or long. Many writers understand this problem. But, some writers often ignore the readability factor. A sentence could be grammatically correct but what if the sentence structure does not absorb to the readers.
Thus, the readability of your website content should adapt to your audience to make it more shareable and easy to skim. In this article, we will explain how you can define readability and measure it to create better content.
What is readability?
Readability is the measure of the quality of your writing. Easier the sentence is to read, more people will be able to enjoy the content on your website.
In other words, Readability is a measure of how easy it is to understand the text. While calculating the readability, various factors like sentence structure, vocabulary, and average sentence length are taken into consideration.
Further, the readability can be measured using certain metrics like the number of syllables in a sentence and the number of words in a sentence.
All these metrics make up together to calculate a readability score.
What is a readability score?
A readability score is a percentage that reflects how easy it would be for someone to read your content. The number of syllables, the number of words in sentences, and other measures are combined to get one overall score.
Our AI tool calculates the readability score using a formula known as the Flesch reading-ease test. The higher the readability test, the easier it is to understand the text.
A text with a higher readability score is easier to understand, while a text with a lower readability score is more difficult to understand.
Why is readability important?
Most adults in the US prefer reading the content with a readability level of 7th grade to 9th grade. While this is what most population of the US wants, but it also depends on the industry you are in.
Is your audience a native English speaker? Are you writing for the experts or just for the fun?
All these questions make it easier for you to understand the readability level of your audience and how to write content that adjusts to the readability.
Writing that is easy to read is better than writing that's hard to read or boring. It can be helpful in keeping people's attention and improving the quality of their work.
Readability is mostly calculated by using the Flesch reading ease test.
How is the readability score calculated?
Readability score is calculated by collecting the metrics from the text and then using the mathematical formulas or various formulas together.
Scalenut also calculates the readability level by using and formulating these metrics together:
Flesch reading ease score
Flesch reading ease gives an output of content on a number from 0 to 100. The higher the score, the easier it is to read the content.
A document with a Flesh reading score of 60-70 is of average readability.
A higher score of 90-100 makes the content readable for a 5th grader student. A readability score of 0-30 is considered readable for college graduates.
Flesch-Kincaid grade level
The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level is an algorithm that is used to determine the readability of a text. It has been designed to test the readability of a document in terms of length, content, and style.
The Fog Scale (Gunning Fog Formula)
This readability formula uses the same formula as Flesch reading ease where it compares the syllables and sentences in a word. A gunning fog index score is rated on a scale of 0-20.
Here, 5 means easy to read, 10 means slightly hard, 15 means hard, and 20 means extremely hard to read.
The SMOG Index
SMOG or Simple Measure of Gobbledygook is a readability framework. It measures how many years of education the average person needs to have to understand a text.
Automated Readability Index
This readability formula rates the readability score on the basis of the grade level that is needed to comprehend the text.
For example, an ARI of 3 means the 3rd-grade student or children above 8-9 years old can read the text easily.
Coleman-liau index
The Coleman-liau index is used for textbook reading exercises. It is an index that measures the difficulty of reading passages that compares characters, not syllable count.
Most grammar checker or proofreader tools use the Flesch readability score to calculate the readability of the content.
How to improve your readability score?
Readability scores can be improved by keeping the sentences short. The content should also adjust to what your target audience wants.
Make sure to cut off the complex sentences and check grammar and spelling to further enhance the readability levels.
Do not use redundant words or phrases again and again. Use some amount of transitional verbs in your piece of text.
Tips to use Readability Scores in your writing
Scalenut uses a number of metrics to help improve the readability of a text. Furthermore, it gives the readability that indicates the level of education one would need to understand the piece of text.
The tool rates the readability level as follows:
- 4th Grader Students
- Mid School Student levels
- High school student levels
- College Graduate student levels
If the suggested content grade is high school students, then you must keep your writing with some polysyllabic words and complex sentences.
How do we calculate the readability of content?
We use the best metrics for calculating the readability of your content. Our AI tool makes sure the content readability follows the sentence structure, English text usage, and other readability guidelines to match with the suggested readability of the Top search results.
Here, the suggested readability is 'High School Students'. So, we have used sentence structure and vocabulary that is the same as this level.
Still, we cherry pick the following metrics to calculate the readability level:
- Total number of sentences.
- Division of texts into short paragraphs.
- Total number of words
- Total number of unique words.
- Number of syllables in the text.
- Ratio of unique to total words in the text,
- Average sentence length
- Average number of words with more than two syllables.
- Average word length or average number of syllables.
Want to improve your readability score?
The purpose of a readability score is to determine how difficult it is for your audience to understand the content you're writing.
A good readability score will help you write more engaging, compelling content that will be able to reach your target audience.
It's no secret that there are a lot of tools out there that can help you create content, but only a few are truly effective. Scalenut AI is one of those tools that can take your writing to the next level and make it easier for you to reach your target audience.
You can adjust to the readability level in real-time while writing in the text editor. Try Scalenut free and see if it works for you.
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