Today, I completed writing first chapter of my PhD thesis and Microsoft Word indicates that the “Flesch Reading Ease” score for the first chapter is 30. In order to better understand what this score means, I looked at Wikipedia. According to Wikipedia, Flesch Reading Ease score of 0-30 indicates that writing can be best understood by a college graduate. In general, higher the Flesch Reading Easer score, easier is the writing to read and comprehend.
Although, I felt good about my Flesch Reading Ease score, I also felt the need to compare my writing with some other published article. After doing some random searches, I came across this interesting article – “Rating the major computing periodicals on readability”. This article analyzed ten major periodicals and found that average Flesch Reading Ease score varies between 25 – 50. Considering this and that my first chapter is still in draft stage and still got a Flesch Reading Ease score of 30, I think, my writing is reasonable 🙂
Flesch Reading Ease score for this article: 65. ( = if you are 13 and above, you should be able to read this post)
Tips:
1. An Online Tool to calcuate different readability statistics: Style & Diction
2. Books on improving writing skills
1. The Elements of Style: Okie Book. Talks about simple grammatical mistakes that often non-native (and sometime native) speakers of english make in the writing.
2. Expectations: Teaching Writing from the Reader’s Perspective : Great Book. Teaches how to write from reader’s expectation. The only thing I can say about this book is that it teaches what design patterns are to a programmer.
3. The Pyramid Principle : Logic in Writing and Thinking: Okie Book. Talks about how to organize ideas.
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