Readability Stats & Flesch-Kincaid Formulae

[Guest]

When computing readability stats, Word helpfully gives the Average Sentence
Length as well as the Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level.

If one inverts the formulae (as stated in the help file) one can recover the
Average Syllables per Word, which occurs in both formulae - but the two
formulae give different answers.

One can however get a close match by using instead of 15.59 a value of 15.9
- as occurs in other versions of the formulae on the web (a value of 15.96536
gives full agreement, but 15.9->15.59 could have been a simple typo lost in
the mists of time)

Question: what does Word ACTUALLY use; how can the inconsistency otherwise
be accounted for? What is the CORRECT value?

Anyone know?

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Julian

I don't think Microsoft has documented how these formulae are designed to
work.

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the comment Shauna -

My point is that the formulae are explicit in the help file - their
application should be trivial once one has determined ASL & ASW - but the
formulae don't agree with the results given.

I was hoping that someone might say "The Help File formula for X" is indeed
wrong, but the score is right (or vice versa), i.e. the Help File writer and
the coder used two different sources.

Looks like a mystery that will never be cleared up!

Julian

 

[Jay Freedman]

The only people who could tell you with certainty are Microsoft
employees with access to the program code, but none of them (to my
knowledge) ever read the newsgroups.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
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