“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.” Jack Kerouac

Easy does it

Have you heard of the Flesch Reading Ease test? It measures how easy text is to read. It was created by Rudolf Flesch, an Austrian born expert on writing and readability.

The test works on a scale of zero to 100. Zero means practically unreadable and 100 means extremely easy to read. Plain English is 60 or above.

Comics

Comics score 92. No wonder they are so popular with children (and me). Magazine adverts tend to be around 82, in contrast to the Harvard Law Review which comes in at 32. A standard insurance policy is about 10. 

The point of all this is that readability is crucial when it comes to websites and sales material. But so often it is overlooked.

The test works by looking at average sentence length in words and average word length in syllables. Word and Outlook make it easy to work out. All you need to do is run Spelling and Grammar and tick the Show Readability statistics box.

Unnamed lawyers

I bet you want to know what score this page gets. I’ll tell you in a minute. First, read this copy which I have taken at random from the website of one of the world’s largest law firms. (I won’t name them in case I get sued. You know what lawyers are like).

“The ongoing market turmoil continues to drive M&A activity across the sector as institutions seek to reshape their operating models or capitalise on new opportunities. We have a pre-eminent reputation for advising a significant number of Banks on complex strategic disposals or acquisitions. We have built strong relationships with key regulators and can mobilise unrivalled resources in order to deliver the full range of the firm’s knowledge and experience and help clients complete successful transactions.”

The verdict

Boring eh? It gets a Flesch Reading Ease rating of 23.*

This page (excluding the lawyers’ bit)? A score of 75.7. And you read it to the end.

* If you think I’ve got something against lawyers, go to the About page.