Flesch Kinkaid Analysis

Bo Sullivan

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I'm sure this has been covered before on this board, but I wonder if any of you analyse what you have written in your spare moments.

If you go to Word, Options, spelling and grammar tab; tick the box marked "show readability statistics" it will give you the flesch kinkaid analysis of reading ease of what you write at the end of a spell check.

Mine came out at:

Flesch Grade Level 9.0
Sentences per paragraph 2.2
Words per sentence 20.7
Characters per word 4.2


I am assuming that it means my work is suitable for a grade 9 student. I don't know whether that is a good or bad result, but I was told to write simply, clearly and effectively.

By that result, I know my sentences are too long, and I will endeavour to shorten them, but without editing the life out of my work, I don't know what the golden rule is for a shorter sentence. (Another long sentence). Long sentences can put a reader off.

Any suggestions:

A sample of what I have written today is:

Ninette de Valois took long purposeful, but elegant strides, as she made her way forward through the crowds. She was determined not to be late for her meeting with the Directors of The Royal Opera House. Her Sadler’s Wells Ballet Company had ultimately been chosen to re-open the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden with a performance of Sleeping Beauty. She found herself bobbing and weaving her way along the pavement in a very excited manner, so that by the time she reached the Royal Opera House she was quite out of breath.

Ninette de Valois was the stage name she had adopted as a young dancer, but she had been born on 6th June, 1898, as Edris Stannus, outside an Irish village near Blessingham in County Wicklow. She was the daughter of an officer in the British army.


Barbara