Similarly, the Gunning-Fog score dropped by 12.8 points to a new score of 18.4. Now, the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level is dropped by 14.3 points to a much more reasonable 14.1. In the section taken from Disney, there are only two sentences, giving a Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of 25.7.īy splitting up the text into five shorter sentences, the readability scores dropped drastically.
Longest word(s) by syllable and by lengthĪll of the help you work out where to focus your attention when it comes to shortening content. While formulas differ, one common component of all readability formulas is sentence length.įor most texts, simply shortening the length of your sentences will lead to the most impressive effect on the readability score.Īs well as generating readability scores for eight readability measures, Readable also provides a range of other useful metrics. Now let’s try and bring these scores down a bit. Putting these scores in context, 12th grade marks the end of schooling. For this exercise, we’ll focus on the first two grade level scores - the Flesch-Kincaid, currently at 24.9, and the Gunning-Fog at 30.1. Readability scores for the original textīefore making any improvements, here are the readability scores for the original segment of text from Disney.Īs you can see, ReadablePro generates scores from a range of different readability formula. Perhaps more alarming is that only 30.5% actually had privacy policies! So, while some companies may have got it right, the transparency and readability of privacy policies still leaves room for improvement. With increasing limelight on privacy policies, some corporations have tried to make sure their policies are reader-friendly.įor example, Pinterest’s privacy policy comes out with an FK Grade level of 12.9 with Reddit’s coming in at 13.9.Īlthough these scores are higher than the recommended 8, given the legal terminology and necessary clauses that privacy policies need to include these scores are still pretty impressive.Ī recent analysis of mobile health app privacy policies reported an average reading grade level of 16. Following this is a list of bullet points including the segment below. The section of the policy begins by stating that “We will not share your personal information outside The Walt Disney Family of Companies except in limited circumstances, including:”. Below is a segment from the Walt Disney Privacy Policy under the heading “sharing personal information with other companies”. To keep things interesting, let's take a look at a real-life example.
Here we will work through 5 steps which should help you make your text more easily understood.
But, what if your score is much higher than this? What steps can you take to improve readability and bring that score down? If you are writing text for the general public you should aim for a grade level score of around 8. The value of readability has been recognized across a whole range of sectors from digital marketers to medical writers.īy ensuring the readability of a piece of text – a patient care guide, a promotional piece for a particular brand, a policy – you increase the chances of your message being understood by your reader. Here are five top tips to get you going.Ī readability score can tell you roughly what level of education someone will need to be able to read a piece of text easily.
What’s not to love about that? However, it’s not always easy to write readable content. Readability is the key to engaging content that boosts your SEO rankings, increases engagement and improves conversion rate.