Testing Post Readability
By AndrewBoyd • Aug 19th, 2007 • Category: Blogging tipsI wrote an article a few days back on writing to impress. I spoke about getting rid of fancy three-dollar words and long-winded multi-clause sentences. Meg picked up on these points within a wider article on making your blog easy to read. She spoke of different readability indexes, such as Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning-Fog, and SMOG.
In the comments of Meg’s article, Rory suggested the WordStats plugin for WordPress - an easy way to judge the relative readability of an article as you are writing it.
My suggestion?
- If you are a WordPress user, get the plugin!
- Open some of your old posts and see how they rate - the index numbers will appear above the post title.
- Look at how different writing styles (bigger or smaller words, longer or shorter sentences) change the index numbers.
- This is the scary bit - when writing a new article, click on “Save and Continue Editing” every so often to see how you are doing. If you don’t like the figures, think about how you might improve the readability of your article.
Here is the WordStats plugin in action - I’ve put a red box over the index results:
Could you overdo this and become obsessed with it? I can see this being an issue for some people (possibly even myself). In the information trade this is called “analysis paralysis” - obsessing over figures and planning to the exclusion of action.
Let me know how you go with this. If you are writing in a long-winded way, it is better to be aware of it - self-awareness is often the first step to change.
Note: I’ve entered this post in Darren Rowse’s 31 Days group writing project.
AndrewBoyd is a consultant by day and blogger by night. He loves good food, good wine, and discussing faceted classification schemes with friends.
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Hi Andrew
I’m using it now too, but haven’t ventured to check out older posts (too late to change them)! I know what you mean about analysis paralysis, I think I suffer from a bit of that myself. Still the plugin is a very handy guide.
Hi Meg,
thank you for your comment
I looked at my older posts because I wanted to know if my writing was becoming clearer or poorer as time goes on. What I found was that if I was talking about something I do professionally (like user centered design) I tended to be less readable - which is something to watch in every day work life as well as blogging.
Maybe we need a version of it that works in comments as well
Cheers, Andrew
“Maybe we need a version of it that works in comments as well :)”
I suspect you may be right
Hi Meg,
the same code could be used - I might try playing with it myself. The trick will be the “save and continue editing” feature that re-parses the text - might be a job for Ajax/Flex.
Cheers, Andrew
[…] Testing Post Readability by Andrew Boyd […]
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[…] Testing Post Readability by Andrew Boyd […]
How accurate can a program be in gauging the quality of your writing though?
I like the idea, but I’m still a little wary.
[…] Testing Post Readability by Andrew Boyd […]
Hi Michael,
thank you for your comment.
The readability indexes are just that - readability. Quality is a different kettle of fish
It is possible to write perfectly readable drivel - but making it readable allows the reader to better judge the quality. Low readability, in my experience, often goes hand in hand with low quality - but one does not automatically infer the other.
Best regards, Andrew
[…] Testing Post Readability by Andrew Boyd […]
[…] content all the time. You have to think about the topic, research it, and then get down to writing readable pillar […]
This is a very interesting plugin! I will certainly give it a try.
Hi GnomeyNewt,
thank you for your comment.
I love WordStats
Like any other measurement tool, there is the temptation to overdo it, but… it is good fun trying to outdo myself in readability scores, especially when the subject matter is complex.
Cheers, Andrew
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