Flesch Kincaid Grade Level Readability
Introduction
Out of the many readability tests that you can use, the most trusted and most used is the Flesch Kincaid Grade Level. It is actually a modified formula of another noted readability test, the Flesch Reading Ease.
The Flesch Kincaid Grade Level is the improved formula developed by John P. Kincaid in the late 1970s. He used the readability formula made by Rudolph Flesch during the 1940s and modified it for the US Navy. Fishburne, Rogers, and Chissom aided Kincaid.
The reason for the modification is because the Flesch Reading Ease results aren’t immediately meaningful and requires a conversion table to understand it. So it was modified by the US Navy to quickly determine whether or not their technical manuals are easy to understand. The Flesh Kincaid Grade Level is best used for educational texts.
Flesch Scoring
If you are already familiar with the Flesch Reading Ease test, then you won’t find it hard to understand the reading levels in the Flesch Kincaid Grade Level. How to read Flesch Kincaid scores will be easy if you understand the numerical grade level system of the US.
The Flesch Kincaid Grade Level has the some of following levels: 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 18. The higher you score, the more difficult the text is to read. As a general guide, it is a smart idea to aim for a Flesch Kincaid reading level of 8. This is because the average reader will have reading skills equivalent to 8th graders.
Flesch-Kincaid Formula
Like the Flesch Reading Ease test, the basic idea behind the Flesch Kincaid reading test is simple. Use simple words and short sentences for better comprehension. If you follow this rules, you can easily get the Flesch Kincaid Reading Age (FKRA).
Thus, the building blocks of their formulas are formed from sentence length (how many words in a sentence) and word length (how many syllables in a word). In formula form, you will need to calculate for the Average Sentence Length (ASL) and Average Syllables per Word (ASW).
For you to work out the grade level of your text, you will need to use:
FKRA = (0.39 x ASL) + (11.8 x ASW) – 15.59
Once you get your reset, analyzing it is straightforward. A score of 4 will tell you that the text can be read by a 4th grader while a score of 14 can be understood by college students.
Grade Conversion
| FKRA Score | School Level | Comprehension |
|---|---|---|
| 5.0-5.9 | 5th Grade | Very easy to read |
| 6.0-6.9 | 6th Grade | Easy to read |
| 7.0-7.9 | 7th Grade | Fairly easy to read |
| 8.0-9.9 | 8th & 9th Grade | Conversational English |
| 10.0-12.9 | 10th , 11th & 12th Grade | Fairly difficult to read |
| 13.0-15.9 | College | Difficult to read |
| 16.0-17.9 | College Graduate | Very difficult to read |
| 18.0+ | Professional | Extremely difficult to read |
Uses
The improved formula of the Flesch Kincaid Grade Level was developed for education purposes which is why it is best used in this field. It is pretty straightforward, and will give you the results you need quickly. As such, many industries (even those outside of education) use it as a diagnostic.
The Flesch Kincaid Readability Test is ideal for website content, advertisements, textbooks and training programs, editing and proofreading, and writing novels. You can also use it to write terms and conditions that can be understood by the layman and even for communicating with a non-specialist audience.
How to Improve Score
Improving your readability score in the Flesch Kincaid Grade Level is very much the same with the Flesch Reading Ease. That’s because they operate under a similar ideal. Long story short, keep your text simple and you’re good to go.
To do so, you will need to:
- Shorten your paragraphs. Five sentences per paragraph is a good guide.
- Use simple words. Words used in everyday conversations are easier to understand.
- Use simple sentences. Running sentences are a no-no. Break up your sentences if you need to.
- Write for your audience. Research your target audience and their reading abilities. Write in their own language and lingo so they can easily comprehend your text.
Further Readings
Wikipedia
The readability checker shows the readability score of the input text along with the Flesch Kincaid Grade Level.
It tells the readability of the given content based on the Flesch reading ease scale that determines how long your words and sentences are.
How to check the readability of your text?
To check the reading level of your text by using this checker, follow the steps below:
- Write or paste the text in the above input box.
- Click the Check Readability button.
The checker further calculates the exact number of unique words, keywords, sentences, syllables, and total word ratio within a fraction of seconds.
What is the readability score?
A readability score is a specific number that shows how easy or difficult it is to read and understand your content.
This score is based on the Flesch-Kincaid readability test where the higher the readability score shows that the text is quite easy to read.
Why use our readability checker?
The checker helps you to check what grade kids could easily read and understand your content.
The calculator uses the following readability formulas to analyze and generate an accurate reading level score.
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Flesch Reading Ease Formula
It is considered one of the most accurate formulas for calculating the reading level of any content.
The formula tells the ease of readability by depending on the average length of the sentence and the average number of syllables per word.
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Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level
This formula is widely used to assess the estimated reading grade level of the content.
It calculates the grade level of any content by checking the sentence and word length of the file.
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Fog Scale
The fog index focuses on determining the difficulty level of the text.
It calculates the estimated years of formal education that a person requires to understand the text on the very first reading.
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Coleman-Liau Index
This reading level test is designed by Meri Coleman and T.L Liau to improve the comprehensibility of the text.
The formula is based on the letters of the text, rather than relying on the syllables per word written in the content.
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Automated Readability Index
The ARI test is specially designed to quickly assess the understanding level of the text.
The formula used in the test outputs a specific number that estimates the level of grade required to understand the content.
Features of our online Readability Checker
The reading level checker provides the following features that help users to check the reading level of their documents.
Provides Sample Data
The reading level calculator provides an option to add sample data in the input box to check the functionality of the tool.
Grade Levels and Readability Index
This option calculates the Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease and Grade Level of the input content.
It further tells the Coleman Liau, Automated Readability, and Average Indexes of the text.
Text Statistics
This feature calculates the normal statistics of the given text.
It calculates the total number of words, the ratio of keywords and total words, unique words & keywords, and the total number of characters without spaces.
Content Statistics
The checker calculates basic content statistics including the total number of sentences, syllables, and the longest sentence written in the content.
Keywords Density
This option specifies the density of one, two, and three words in the checked text.
This feature helps users to avoid keyword stuffing for different SEO purposes.
Steps
- Click the Microsoft Office button.
- Click the Word Options button.
- Click the Proofing tab on the left side.
- Select the Show Readability Statistics box.
- Click OK.
- Run the spell check. Once the spelling and grammar have been checked, a pop-screen showing the readability stats will appear.
- Read the results.
Similarly one may ask, how do you count sentences in Word?
Count the number of pages, characters, paragraphs, and lines. The Word Count dialog box displays the number of pages, paragraphs, and lines in your document, and also the number of characters, either including or excluding spaces. On the Review tab, in the Proofing group, click Word Count.
What are readability statistics?
Counts: the number of words, characters, paragraphs, and sentences in the document. Averages: average sentences per paragraph, words per sentence, and characters per word. Readability statistics: percentage of passive sentences in the document, Flesch Reading Ease score, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level.
How do you check reading level in Word on a Mac?
To check for reading level:
- Copy text from a website.
- In Mac OS X, go to the Word drop down menu.
- On a Mac select Preferences.
- Select Spelling and Grammar.
- Check Show readability statistics and click OK.
- Now when you use the spell check tool, it will automatically tell you the Flesch-Kincaid grade level equivalency.
Write Your Answer
As an English language instructor, I am always on the hunt for reading and listening material that I can use in my classroom. As simple as that sounds, it is always a tricky endeavor simply because most of the material created is meant for someone fluent in the language and makes use of a larger lexicon than language learners have.
While there are a number of tools that provide reading level scores such as Gunning-Fog and Flesch-Kincaid, these are designed for native speakers and are connected to student grade levels. They take into account sentence complexity and paragraph length along with vocabulary density, but don’t give an indication of what words, phrases, or idioms that increase the difficulty.
A few years ago, I came across a rather simplistic looking tool that has really helped me out over the years to find and edit text for my students that fits within their vocabulary level. Here is how it works:
- Go to the Frequency Level Checker main page and click on ‘Try it!’. You can also go directly to the tool by clicking here.
- Find a text you would like to check and paste it into the box at the top of the page.
- You will find five options below the text box.
- Level 1 = the main 1000 words we use in general English.
- Level 2 = the next 1000 words we use in general English.
- Level 3 = the 800 most used words in academic English.
- Outside Levels = words not in the above three levels. Proper names fall under this category since they are not in the vocabulary lists.
- Symbols = anything that is not a letter (eg. punctuation, numbers).
- There are a few options on using the colour coding system:
- Select the colour of the text for each of the levels by clicking on appropriate radio button. I tend to leave everything black that is not what I want to find and make the one or two levels in colour that I want to highlight. For example, if I am trying to find words for my intermediate level class that may be difficult for them, I select black for Level 1 and for Symbols, but make Level 2 red, Level 3 green, and Outside Levels blue.
- If you want to only see words from a specific level or levels, you can hide everything else by choosing ‘Invisible’ for those levels you want to hide. This is helpful when you are building a glossary or are looking for lower level synonyms for simplifying/altering the text.
- Once you have chosen your colour options, click on ‘Enter’ and a new window or tab opens up with three areas.
- The main area in the top-left has the text in the colours you have chosen.
- Along the bottom, you have the totals and percentages for each category, including word families. This is helpful for seeing what percentage of the text your students should know. Keep in mind you want the percentage to be pretty high (~95%) for fluency and for figuring out words from context.
I hope that helps. Let me know what you think!
- Column
- TECHNOLOGY Q&A
By J. Carlton Collins, CPA
Q. Is it possible to check the reading grade level of the letters and reports I write in Word 2016, and if so, how do I do this, and exactly how does this grade—level calculation work?
A. To check your Word document’s reading grade level using the Flesch—Kincaid score, from the Word File tab, select Options, Proofing, and under the When correcting spelling and grammar in Word section, make sure the Check grammar with spelling and Show readability statistics boxes are selected. After you enable this feature, open a file that you want to check, and start the spelling tool by pressing the F7 key. After Word finishes checking the document’s spelling and grammar, the spelling tool also displays information about the document’s reading level, as pictured below.
The Flesch—Kincaid Grade Level Test rates text on an approximate U.S. school grade level; for example, a score of 13.0 (as shown in the screenshot) means that the average freshman in college would be expected to understand the text. The specific formula for calculating the Flesch—Kincaid Grade Level score is: (0.39 × ASL) + (11.8 × ASW) — 15.59
In the formula above, ASL = average sentence length (calculated as the number of words divided by the number of sentences), and ASW = average number of syllables per word (calculated as the number of syllables divided by the number of words).
The Flesch—Kincaid Reading Grade Level scoring system was developed in 1975 by J. Peter Kincaid and his team as a special project for the U.S. Navy. According to research published by Robert P. Strauss and Helen Lin of Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College, the Flesch—Kincaid grade level of the Gettysburg Address, the U.S. Constitution, and the Internal Revenue Code (as of 2012) are 10.6, 12.3, and 9.8, respectively. Further, this duo calculated the mean average Flesch—Kincaid grade level for the instructions for preparing Forms 1040, 1120, and 1120S tax returns (over a 22—year period ending in 2012), were 8.4, 10.0, and 10.3, respectively.
And just for fun, I used Word’s Flesch—Kincaid tool to calculate that this month’s Technology Q&A column scores a 13.0 (mainly because this column’s many menu instructions result in more complex sentence structures; I sure hope my column is easier to understand than the U.S. tax code).
About the author
J. Carlton Collins (carlton@asaresearch.com) is a technology consultant, a CPE instructor, and a JofA contributing editor.
Note: Instructions for Microsoft Office in “Technology Q&A” refer to the 2007 through 2016 versions, unless otherwise specified.
Submit a question
Do you have technology questions for this column? Or, after reading an answer, do you have a better solution? Send them to jofatech@aicpa.org. We regret being unable to individually answer all submitted questions.
Update: 10/3/09: You can now check out my E How article (with pictures) that explains how to check the readability of text in Word 2007………………
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This tip was passed on in one of my homeschooling groups and although I have seen this before in Word, I never paid too much attention, but its neat.
I pulled these directions out of Word 2007 because the person who posted did not go into enough details for me so I had to do a little fishing around. You can do this I am sure with earlier versions of word but the method may be a little different, just probably look for how to get the bold stuff below. (update: there’s an EHow Article (not mine) that tells how to do this in Office 2003.)
Enable readability statistics
Do the following in one of these Microsoft Office programs:
Word
- Click the Microsoft Office Button
, and then click Word Options. - Click Proofing.
- Make sure Check grammar with spelling is selected.
- Under When correcting grammar in Word, select the Show readability statistics check box.
, and then click Word Options. Note: The readability statistics that are referred to here are Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level test
“This test rates text on a U.S. school grade level. For example, a score of 8.0 means that an eighth grader can understand the document.”
The last item under readability (Flesch-Kincaid Grade level) in the picture below from Word shows the grade level: 2.3.
I spell checked the sentence: The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. (to test it)
You simply open your document in word and run a spell check. If you get something, say from Project Gutenberg, etc, in html, just cut and paste into Word and run the spell check. The box pops up after the spell check is complete if you have selected, Check grammar with spelling option AND When correcting grammar in Word, select the Show readability statistics.
Did you ever had that nasty feeling of not having the right word when speaking or writing (no matter in your native or foreign language)?
I know it and hate it. That’s the reason why I am trying hard to expand my vocabulary in my native language and a couple of foreign ones.
The more words we know the better we feel in colloquial communication, the more freely we read and write.
However, we must realize that we have two different types of vocabulary — passive for general comprehension and active for applied use.
A huge passive vocabulary makes it possible to understand written and spoken language easily.
Passive vocabulary adds to the words of our active vocabulary many others stored in the depth of our memory. They could hardly be retrieved without external impact.
The role of such impact plays written or voiced text. We recognize words and understand (or sometimes guess) their meaning within phrases and sentences while listening or reading. This storage should be kept in good condition, but we have to be aware that it would barely help us while communicating.
If we want to speak fluently, we need a rich active vocabulary. Active means here that we we can recall the words without any doubt or procrastination and actively use them in speaking and writing.
Now let’s specify how many words do speakers of different levels possess.
The table below displays the approximate numbers of passive vocabulary.
| Level of English | Number of Known Base Words |
| A1 | 500 |
| A2 | 1,000 |
| B1 | 2,000 |
| B2 | 4,000 |
| C1 | 8,000 |
| C2 | 16,000+ |
You can add or deduct 20% of your test result because this is an average error of such calculations.
The C2 level approximately matches the level of a native high school graduate.
More details about the number of words can be found
here.
If you haven’t taken the test yet, do it now and grade your vocabulary level.
How about doing a contest with your friend?