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Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease

In the Flesch Reading Ease test, higher scores indicate material that is easier to read; lower numbers mark passages that are more difficult to read.

Reader's Digest magazine has a readability index of about 65, Time magazine scores about 52, an average year 7 student's (eleven years) written assignment has a readability test of 60-70 (and a reading grade level of 6-7) and the Harvard Law Review has a general readability score in the low 30s.

Long words affect this score significantly more than they do the grade level score.

Flesch Kincaid Grade Level

The Flesch Kincaid Grade Level gives an indication of the number of years' education required to read the text.

The result is a number that corresponds with a grade level. For example, a score of 8.2 would indicate that the text is expected to be understandable by an average student in 8th grade (usually around ages 13-14 in the United States of America).

Gunning Fog Score

The result indicates the number of years of formal education that a reader needs to easily understand the text on the first reading. That is, if a passage has a fog index of 12, it has the reading level of a U.S. high school senior.

The fog index is generally used by people who want their writing to be read easily by a large segment of the population. Texts that are designed for a wide audience generally require a fog index of less than 12. Texts that require a close-to-universal understanding generally require an index of less than 8.

SMOG Index

SMOG (Simple Measure of Gobbledygook) is a readability formula that estimates the years of education needed to completely understand a piece of writing.

Unlike Gunning Fog or Flesch Kinkaid, it measures syllables which makes it more accurate.