Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test and Calculator

Why do you need Hemingway's Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test?

When you write, it's crucial that your readers can grasp the meaning of your text. If you're reading something and can't make sense of it, would you keep going?

This thought led to a field of research called readability. It examines the factors that make text difficult to understand, like complicated words and phrasing. Through decades of research, scientists have developed formulas to gauge the difficulty of text. The Flesch-Kincaid readability test is one of the most popular.

It's essential that the readability score of your text matches your target audience. For example, the majority of adults in the United States read at an 8th-grade level. That means your text needs to score at or below that level for the majority of people to understand it. If your text is too hard to understand, you'll suffer higher bounce rates, worse SEO, and text that doesn't move the needle.

What is the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test and how did it start?

In 1975, the United States Navy faced a big issue. They needed to create complex training materials for soldiers with a wide range of education levels. From testing, they found that many recruits struggled to comprehend their dense training manuals.

To solve this issue, they hired J. Peter Kincaid and his team to conduct research into the field of readability. One of their biggest projects was finding a reliable method to judge the difficulty of understanding a piece of text. This led to the creation of the Flesch-Kincaid readability formula.

The formula looks at both the average amount of words in each sentence as well as how many syllables they contain. By feeding these numbers into the formula below, they could calculate a score between 0-100. The higher the number, the easier the text is to read and understand.

They also developed a similar test called the Flesch Reading Ease score. This test works in a similar way, but outputs a score that directly correlates to a level of education needed to understand the piece of writing.

Here's how to calculate the Flesch-Kincaid readability score:

206.835 - 1.015 (words / sentences) - 84.6 (syllables / words)

What is a good Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test score?

When it comes to writing, there's never a one-size-fits-all solution for the best readability score. Instead, it all comes down to who your target audience is and what their average level of education is. Using this information, you can choose an optimal score, which will allow the majority of people to understand it. The Flesch-Kincaid Readability test assigns a score between 0 and 100, which breaks down like this:

• 100-90: This level is perfect for typical 11-year-olds.
• 90-80: Conversational English fit for 6th-graders.
• 80-70: This level is clear and easy for most adults to grasp.
• 70-60: Expect an 8th-grade reading level suitable for general audiences.
• 60-50: Text here offers a challenge suitable for 10th to 12th grades.
• 50-30: This level is meant for college students and is quite challenging for most readers.
• 30-10: College graduate material; it's tough for the average reader.
• 10-0: This text demands a professional-level understanding; it is very complex.

As you can see, the higher a score is, the easier it is to read. When writing for a general audience, it's best to keep your scores above 60 for higher readability.

What are the weaknesses of the Flesch-Kincaid readability test?

While the Flesch-Kincaid readability test is one of the most popular grade lexical checkers for answering "what grade level is my writing?," it's not without its drawbacks. These issues come down to the way it calculates scores, specifically the need to count the number of syllables in your text.

While this issue sounds simple, it's trickier than you first think. One problem is that people often disagree on how many syllables a word contains. Take the word chocolate, for instance. Some people say it with 3 syllables (choc-o-late) while others use just 2 (choc-lit). Countless other words face the same issue; two people might get different scores when testing the same section of writing.

Syllables are an even bigger issue for computers, which can't just sound out the words. Instead, they have to look up each word in a pre-made list to find its syllable count. These calculations are tricky to perform and often cause big delays. When checking your Flesch-Kincaid readability score in Microsoft Word or other tools, it can take several minutes to calculate for a longer document. This makes it quite annoying to find the readability score of your text, especially if you are making frequent changes.

What's the best way to check the readability score of my writing?

Hemingway Editor's free online readability checker builds on the Flesch-Kincaid readability test to deliver even better results. It features several benefits that make your editing process faster:

• Provides an overall readability score and highlights your most complicated sentences
• Checks grade level in real time, making it easy to edit your document and see instant results.
• Unlike other free writing level checkers, it doesn't have a word count limit. You can perform readability tests on larger documents like whole novels

FAQ

What is the Flesh-Kincaid grade level readability test for?

The Flesch-Kincaid grade level readability test calculates how difficult it is to read and understand a given text. It provides a score showing the amount of education needed to process a piece of writing without difficulty.

What is a good Flesch-Kincaid readability test score?

When writing for a general adult audience, an 8th-grade level score ensures the majority of people can read and understand it. This corresponds to a score of 60-70 on the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test.

What are the other popular readability tests?

Besides the Flesch-Kincaid readability test, there are also the Flesch Reading Ease score, Gunning-Fog Index, SMOG, and the Automated Readability Index. You can also use more modern tools like Hemingway Editor's free online readability test, which uses the Automated Readability Index.

How do I check the Flesch-Kincaid score of my writing in Microsoft Word?

It's easy to find the Flesch-Kincaid or Flesch Reading Ease score of your writing in Microsoft Word. Check out our guide to checking your readability level in Microsoft Word, including Microsoft 365, older versions of Word, and in Word for macOS.

How does a Flesch-Kincaid score affect SEO?

The reading level of your text is one of the biggest factors Google uses for SEO. By increasing the readability of your text, you can lower bounce rates and improve your page rankings dramatically.