Red Marker has introduced Readability functionality. This means we can now build rules that will assess the reading age of your document. This allows your organisation to stay compliant with reading age regulations, or can help you to simplify your content when necessary.
What is Readability Level?
The "Readability Level," or "Reader Age," of a document refers to the ease in which a document can be read. A number of factors can go into assigning a readability level such as font choices, spacing, word usage, sentence formation, etc.
How does Red Marker test the readability?
Red Marker uses 3 different methods to identify the readability:
SMOG Method
Designed to analyze documents based upon how many words have three or more syllables.
Most accurate on documents with more than 30 sentences as it typically analyzes 10 sentences near the beginning of the document, 10 near the middle, and 10 near the end.
The document is assigned a readability "grade level" from 5 to 18, with 5 being the easiest (e.g. kindergarten level), and 18 being the hardest (e.g. 12th grade or higher).
Fry Method
Designed to analyze three blocks of text with 100 words each, focusing on the number of words per sentence and the average number of syllables per word.
The document is given a score on a 1 to 100 scale with the easiest readability/lowest reader age being 100 and most difficult being 1.
Flesch-Kincaid
Designed to analyze the entire document based upon the number of words per sentence and average number of syllables per word.
The document is given in a grade level format, e.g. "sixth grade level of readability."
How are results displayed?
Results will be displayed as a total readability score for the entire document. There is also an option to have sentences with the "highest reading level" highlighted. This will help you to identify the least-readable sentences which may need to be re-drafted to improve the readability of the document.
What does "highest reading level" mean?
Highest reading level means sentences that are at least 3 grades higher than the average reading age of the overall document. For example, if the overall grade of the document is fifth grade, Red Marker can highlight up to 10 sentences that are at least 8th grade or above. It will focus on those with the highest level first (e.g. if there are sentences over 12th grade reader age it will highlight these first).
Can we add specific exclusion terms?
While this can be done in certain circumstances, it is determined on a case by case basis. Currently we exclude URLs from the readability calculations.
How do I use Red Marker Readability?
If you're interested in utilising Red Marker to help assess your readability level(s), please reach out to your Customer Success Manager and Implementation Consultant to discuss building readability rules.