List of readability tests
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
This is a list of formula to measure textual difficulty.
Contents |
[change] Overview
These are method of finding out how hard a piece of writing is (its textual difficulty).
[change] Fog
| Year | |
|---|---|
| Comprehension | |
| Variables | Sentence length ... |
Uses affixes, Personal Pronouns,
[change] Formula
[change] Gunning Fog
| Year | 1952 |
|---|---|
| Comprehension | 90% |
| Variables | Sentence length Polysyllables |
The Gunning fog, sometimes fog index, is a formula developed by Robert Gunning. It was first published in his book The Technique of Clear Writing in 1952. It became popular due to the easy which the score is calculated without a calculator.
The formula has been criticized since it weights, or uses, sentence length. The critics argue that texts created with the formula will use shorter sentences without using simpler words.
[change] Formula
![\mbox{Gunning Fog grade} = 0.4 \times \left [ \frac{ \mbox{words} }{ \mbox{sentences} } + \left ( 100 \times \frac{ \mbox{hard words} }{\mbox{words}} \right ) \right ]](../../../../math/6/0/8/6086d4db623b0933613dff726b2b5eed.png)
Where:
- words is number of words
- sentences is number of sentences
- hard words is the number of word with 3 or more syllables (excluding endings) which are not names or compound words
[change] Spache
| Year | 1953 |
|---|---|
| Comprehension | ~ |
| Variables | Sentence length Unfamiliar words |
The Spache method compares words in a text to a list of words which are familiar in everyday writing. The words that are not on the list are called unfamiliar. The number of words per sentence are counted. This number and the percentage of unfamiliar words is put into a formula. The result is a reading age. Someone of this age should be able to read the text. It is designed to work on texts for children in primary education or grades from 1st to 7th.
[change] Formula
In 1974 Spache revised his Formula to:[1]
[change] Coleman-Liau Index
| Year | 1967 |
|---|---|
| Comprehension | |
| Variables | Sentence count Word length |
[change] Formula
The calculations are performed in two steps. The first step finds the Estimated Close Percentage. The second stop, calculation the actual grade.
A simple version also exist that is not as accurate:
[change] Automated Readability Index
| Year | 1967 |
|---|---|
| Comprehension | |
| Variables | Sentence length Word length |
[change] Formula
[change] SMOG
| Year | 1969 |
|---|---|
| Comprehension | 100% |
| Variables | Sentence count Polysyllables |
The SMOG formula is a way of estimating the difficulty of writing. It was developed G. Harry McLaughlin in 1969 to make calculations as simple as possible. It has a high correlation 0.985 or 0.97% accuracy of the score to the actual grade at which students where able to fully understand the piece of writing.
Like Gunning-Fog the formula uses words which have 3 or more syllables as an indicator for hardness, these are said to be polysyllabic.
[change] Formula
The original formula was given for a 30 sentence samples, which is:
This can be adjusted to work with any number of sentences:
McLaughlin has made directions for a version which could be done with just mental math.
- Count the number of words with 3 or more syllables, excluding names, in a 30 sentences.
- Take the square root of the nearest perfect square
- Add 3 to get the SMOG Grade
[change] References
- Dubay, W.H. (2004). "The Principles of Readability". Costa Mesa, CA: Impact Information. Retrieved on 10 January 2008.
- Spache, G. (1953). "A New Readability Formula for Primary-Grade Reading Materials". The Elementary School Journal 53 (7): 410-413. Retrieved on 10 January 2008.
- Coleman, M., Liau, T.L. (1975). "A Computer Readability Formula Designed for Machine Scoring". Journal of Applied Psychology 60 (2): 283-284.
- Senter, R.J., Smith, E.A. (1967). "Automated Readability Index.". Retrieved on 10 January 2008.
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