There is a vast difference between ‘writing to impress’ and ‘writing to make the other understand’. There are some who employ difficult words coupled with long and complex sentence structures to make the other accept inferiority when it comes to writing. This may seem a good way to show one’s writing skill but in this day and age where online content is of significant demand, this seemingly innocent strategy can prove detrimental to your career.
The reason is based on the deep penetration of mainstream multimedia into our lives which has made access to information, easy and visual. With this backdrop, the internet has taken the quest for information one step ahead in terms of easiness in understanding and has caused content to be to the point, simple and informative (quality over quantity). SEO principles also dictate that online content should be original and easy to understand and this is why the concept of readability and indicators of readability level (that form the basis of readability statistics) are of critical importance.
In this post, we aim to show you how to check the readability level and statistics of your content in the most widely used word editor out there, Microsoft Word. In doing so, we will reveal how one click can reveal comprehensive counts (words, characters, paragraphs and sentences), averages (sentences per paragraph, words per sentences and so on), and readability level (passivity, Flesch Kincaid Level and much more).
Table of Contents
Readability Statistics – What is it?
Ever found it hard to finish an article? Difficult vocabulary, lack of figures or visuals, and a stack of information that needs serious organization may cause frustration in average readers and they may just end up only reading the heading of the respective post. This causes a writing dilemma where the writer is unable to effectively convey the message to the reader. Readability can be defined as the ease with which a document or a writing piece can be read.
Readability level is an output of readability tests such as the Flesch Kincaid Level/Test(that are solely designed to measure the ease of comprehension at the reader’s end of the writing piece under scrutiny). These tests are based on formulas that rely majorly on the following points:
– Organization and structure of the writing (refers to the difficulty of words and the level of vocabulary employed)
– Sentence structure and composition (this entails the complexity of sentences and how long are they, how difficult are they built and connected, and so on.)
Readability Level Check In Word 2013?
After understanding the concept and need for readability, readability tests and readability levels, let us now come to the prime focus of this post: How To Check Readability Level Of A Writing In Microsoft Word 2013? Simply follow the following steps and you’ll get the answer.
Enabling The Readability Statistics Feature
See if the readability statistics feature is enabled in your version of Microsoft Word. To do this, go to the Review tab in the ribbon interface of Microsoft Word 2013 and click the Spelling & Grammar button at the extreme left of the ribbon under the tab selection pane. After correcting any grammatical or spelling errors, if the completion window does not show any readability statistics, you must then proceed to the next step.
Checking The Readability Statistics
Go to the File menu and click on Options present in the left sidebar of the overall menu. The General tab of a new window, Word Options, will come to view. The General tab is selected by default and you must proceed by selecting the Proofing tab. Now, enable the Show Readability Statistics entry and hit the OK button. You can always revert the changes (i.e. disable the readability statistics) by coming back to the Proofing section of the Word Options window, any time.
Spelling And Grammar
Now that you have enabled the Readability Statistics, simply return to the Review tab (on the ribbon interface) and click on the Spelling & Grammar button once again. This time, a very different concluding window will appear. See the snapshot below to understand what is exactly being referred to here.
Through the Readability Statistics feature Microsoft Word has shown us once again that it is not only concerned with where we write but is equally concerned with how we write. This feature can easily help novice writers in developing good writing skills especially needed in the online content domain.
The Readability Statistics are split into three aspects: Counts, Averages and Readability itself. The Counts are split into Word Count, Character Count, Number Of Paragraphs and the Number of Sentences in the writing. Similarly, the Averages are split into the average number of sentences per paragraph, average word count per sentence and the average character count per word. The Readability section highlights the most interesting statistics from which we derive 3 useful readability tips:
1. Passive Sentences Percentage (Try to keep this percentage to the minimum. Less than 5% is good.)
2. Flesch Reading Ease (This score is based on a 1 to 100 scale where the higher the number, the easier is the document to understand.)
3. Flesch- Kincaid Grade Level (A score of 8, here, would mean that this writing piece can be understood by a eighth grader. A Flesch Kincaid Grade Level score between 7 and 8 is often recommended).
In conclusion, this post has shed light on the some important aspects of readability while covering tips and tricks to make your writing simpler and attractive to a wider target audience on the road to unravelling how Microsoft Word 2013 can highlight important and relevant readability indicators for you. Furthermore, you can use the Track Changes feature in Word 2013 to derive the best possible revisions under a unified supervised workspace.
Feel free to share your opinions and experiences with regards to the Microsoft Word’s feature as well as the writing experience in the comments section, below. Cheers!
