Can You Read This?

On this ever exciting Saturday I began to play around with Microsoft Word. I recalled that a speaker at one of the education conferences I attended in the past spoke of the ability to identify the reading level and level of readability of a document. She was sharing this because most school textbooks are written well above the actual grade level they are intended for. This being especially true of science textbooks.

So, today I typed in several passages of my 7th graders text and, sure enough, it was consistently well over an 11.5 grade level! The readibility was only an average of 45%! No wonder they don't get anything out of the reading! Perhaps I should be a bit more sympathetic when giving a reading quiz.

I also then ran this little test on some of the papers I submitted for my previous master's work. Ha! Ha! I write at an 11th grade level according to this test BUT my readability was in the 60% range (which is a very acceptable score based on the the scales definitions). However, my blogs are at an 8th grade level! LOL Like that's a big surprise!

Anyway, this was a fun Saturday activity for me. You should try it sometime. It really makes ya think about what you're writing! (Well...except in the case of blogs!)