Readability Checker
Check the readability of your writing with Flesch-Kincaid scores, grade level analysis, and suggestions to improve clarity.
Tool
Readability
Category
What you get
- Reads your draft against the rubric
- Surfaces issues, not noise
- Carries findings into the editor
Enter text above to see readability analysis
How the readability checker works
Paste your text into the editor above to get instant readability analysis. The tool calculates your Flesch Reading Ease score (0 to 100) and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, along with detailed statistics about your sentence structure and word complexity. All processing happens locally in your browser.
Flesch-Kincaid score ranges
- 90 to 100 (Very Easy): understood by a 5th grader. Simple, short sentences with common words.
- 80 to 89 (Easy): conversational English. Suitable for consumer content and casual blog posts.
- 70 to 79 (Fairly Easy): 7th grade level. Good for most general-audience writing.
- 60 to 69 (Standard): 8th to 9th grade. The sweet spot for most essays, articles, and reports.
- 50 to 59 (Fairly Difficult): 10th to 12th grade. Typical of quality journalism and business writing.
- 30 to 49 (Difficult): college level. Academic papers, legal documents, and technical writing.
- 0 to 29 (Very Difficult): graduate level. Dense academic prose and specialized professional documents.
Tips to improve readability
- Shorten your sentences. Aim for 15 to 20 words per sentence on average. Break compound sentences into two.
- Choose simpler words. Replace "utilize" with "use," "approximately" with "about," and "facilitate" with "help."
- Use active voice. "The team completed the project" is clearer than "The project was completed by the team."
- Remove filler words. Words like "very," "really," and "basically" add syllables without adding meaning.
FAQ
よくある質問
よくある質問
A Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score of 60 to 70 is considered ideal for most writing. Scores above 70 indicate easy-to-read text, while scores below 30 suggest very difficult, academic-level writing. For essays, aim for 50 to 70 depending on your audience.
The formula is: 206.835 - 1.015 x (total words / total sentences) - 84.6 x (total syllables / total words). It penalizes long sentences and words with many syllables, producing a score between 0 and 100 where higher is easier to read.
The Grade Level maps your text to a U.S. school grade using the formula: 0.39 x (words / sentences) + 11.8 x (syllables / words) - 15.59. A score of 8.0 means an 8th grader can understand the text. Most general-audience content targets grade 7 to 9.
Syllables are approximated by counting groups of consecutive vowels (a, e, i, o, u, y) in each word, then subtracting one for silent endings. Every word has at least one syllable. This method is accurate for the vast majority of English words.
In readability analysis, a complex word is any word with three or more syllables. The percentage of complex words in your text is a useful indicator of vocabulary difficulty, separate from the Flesch-Kincaid scores.
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