How Readable Is Your Writing?
Written by Rosalind Gardner on April 16, 2007 · Comments (7)
Filed Under Writing ·
Is your Web copy easy to read and understand?
If sales conversions on your affiliate sites are low or few visitors respond to your requests, the problem may be that your message lacks clarity or simplicity.
To check your articles for reading ease and “grade level”, I recommend using a tool that incorporates the Flesch-Kincaid readability test.
The test checks the number of words in each sentence, and the number of syllables per word. Using shorter sentences and shorter words with fewer syllables will result in a higher score of “reading ease”. The best score is 100.
The “grade level” test uses the Gunning-Fog index to assess the grade school level of your writing.
For example, the sentence “Jane runs up the hill” is at a Grade 3 level, while this “The graduation writing assessment requirement (GWAR) is a systemwide requirement. The California State University system requires upper-division undergraduate students to demonstrate a level of writing proficiency which may be expected of college graduates” came in at 17.8, which I suppose is a sixth-year University level. 
Up to this point, this article comes in at a Grade 9.4 level, which is equivalent to the what Reader’s Digest offers its readers. Most surfers have low attention spans and read at grade levels between 7 and 9, which are the levels you should aim to hit in your articles.
To test your next article, I recommend that you use the free tool at “Textalyser.net“.
People won’t act if they don’t get the point.
To help your visitors get the point, improve the readability of your writing and help yourself to improved conversion rates in the process!
Rosalind Gardner is author of the best selling “Super Affiliate Handbook: How I Made 436,797 in One Year Selling Other People’s Stuff Online“.
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Comments
7 Responses to “How Readable Is Your Writing?”
John on April 16th, 2007 22:53 pm
Thanks Ros for the information. Writing good english had not been my strong area but I do want to let my subscribers understand what I say.
John
[Reply]
Gary Harvey on April 17th, 2007 1:27 am
Thanks for sharing. Neat tool. But where did you get the grade information. The word grade doesnt even appear on (my Australian version of) the page.
Gary
[Reply]
daniel on April 17th, 2007 1:54 am
hi, Ros, how are you today?
Great post on one of my favourite topics!
A little addition to this that i’ve found works well: don’t just go for ’simple’ language, aim to match the exact needs of your audience. For example, if you’re pitching to college professors, grade 3 content is probably going to come across as patronising.
here’s a little post I wrote along these lines: http://www.omstrategy.com/53/how-unclear-language-can-damage-your-results
Hope that helps someone!
daniel
[Reply]
Ernest O'Dell on April 17th, 2007 4:34 am
Hi Rosalind,
I enjoyed your article and have to agree with your assertions. Sadly, though, too much of our culture (and literature) has been “dumbed” down because so many people CANNOT read above 3rd to 5th grade level.
I’m impressed with Kevin Hogan’s articles because he writes to a exceptionally high IQ base, but much of what is found on the net is on a much lower scale. Not that the author can’t write at that level, but rather than the readership won’t read it because of the attention span factor.
However, if writers were to be a little ‘creative’ in their writing and learn some “hypnotic” writing principles (taught by Joe Vitale), maybe their articles would get more continuance.
Rosalind, keep up the good work. I really enjoy your articles, and don’t get to respond to them often. I stay pretty busy myself writing for the local paper and two magazines, but will try to keep in touch with you whenever I can.
Cheers,
Ernest O’Dell
Blanco, TX
Ph: 210-627-3077
[Reply]
Dave on April 17th, 2007 7:44 am
Hi
Yes so true. You have about 30 seconds to capture your viewer.
Nice tool Thank you
Dave
[Reply]
Bob Hale on April 22nd, 2007 17:42 pm
Hi Rosalind,
Not only is the tool intersting, as you wrote, but the article I used from my website showed me why Google Adsense Ads were not what I’d really like. Too many instances of OTHER words instead of my keyword. So, this is another tool to help with search engine optimization and keyword densitiy.
OH, my readability was a 7.4
[Reply]
Harrison on April 25th, 2007 7:01 am
Hi Rosalind,
Thanks for sharing such good tools with us. Recently I was searching for this kind of tool to test the content of my blog. Your post came at the right time for me. Thank you very much!
[Reply]
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