1. Readability Formulas

2. Why were they developed?

3. What do readers look like?

4. Types of Formulas  Flesch Reading Ease  Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level  Automated Readability Index  FOG  SMOG  The Cloze procedure

5. What affects readability?  Layout and formatting  Word choice and sentence length  Visuals  Attractiveness  The 7 C’s

6. What do the formulas measure? (what is claimed) --Number of syllables in a word --Number of words in a sentence

7. What causes poor readings?  Numbers  Complicated names  Multi-syllabic words  Addresses  Long sentences  Complex sentences

8. To improve results:  Spell out numbers or run the checker without the numbers  Bulleted lists  Simpler sentences  Shorter words  Reduced punctuation  Checking sentence by sentence

9. Are they any good?