How to do a quick and easy readability score on a document

Like most teachers I learned how to calculate the readability score of a reading sample and like most people who have been out of school for awhile I've forgotten how to do it. Luckily, MS Word has a built in readability test, a Flesch-Kinkcaid readibility score, enclosed with the Spelling and Grammar checker. However, the readability score is not part of the default settings, so you will have to tell MS-Word to perform the test.

The steps to tell MS Word to do a readability assessment are:


1. In MS Word, click on the "Tools" menu and select "Options"
2. Click on the "Spelling and Grammar" tab
3. Check the box that says "show readability statistics"




From now on whenever you do a spelling and grammar check on a document it will provide you with a report similar to this:



The picture shows the Readability Statistics for a reading sample given to 4th grade students on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). You can find it yourself at The National Center for Education Statistics website by searching for "Mir". Please note the Flesch-Kinkcaid grade level and be sure to mention it whenever someone starts bad mouthing the public schools for their NAEP scores.