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.