While reading The Writer’s Little Helper (yes, the same book from this post–I told you I was actually reading it), I came across several references to readability. The author, James V. Smith, is a big fan of readability. And so am I. But I wasn’t always.
One of the publications that got me back to writing was a newspaper that our church produced. We had a circulation run of about 3,000, and twelve pages to fill with news. And the editor was a writer gal who was very serious about journalism.
At one of our staff meetings, she came in with a handout. “Here are instructions for enabling readability statistics. Use them.” Then she gave us the numbers that she wanted our writing to meet. It was an eye-opening experience for me.
I mean, I was a journalist, too. I thought I knew the ins and outs of writing. But there is a big difference between fine writing–and writing that people will read. So, yeah. I had to make some changes.
That must have been at least ten years ago. But the lessons I learned from using the readability statistics stuck with me. And I can prove it. Just read my post on The Muffin.
I may not always get around to reading my writing books, but if you give me a handout, we’re golden.
Cathy C. Hall Writes 
Thank you Cathy! This was a great post. I popped over to your post on Muffin and it was filled with great information. I am doing (hopefully) the final edit on my memoir, the one I began blogging in November, and I decided to run the stats you talked about in the post!
For the entire manuscript, this is what it showed:
Words: 51,075
Passivity: 5%
Reading Ease: 76.1
Grade Level: 6.1
Words per sentence: 15.1
Whoo Hoo! Now I have more tools to play around with–I love to tinker.
Holy cow, those are great numbers! Here’s another tip: Highlight your memoir, chapter by chapter to get the readability scores. Then you can see which parts of your memoir are really cooking and which parts are just simmering–and adjust accordingly. Often, when you check an entire manuscript, scores balance out (and that’s good!) but you can get a better picture if you check bit by bit. So off you go–you’ve got some tinkering to do! 🙂
P.S. SO proud of you, blogging that memoir! Can’t wait to read it!
Thanks Cathy! Off I go tinkering, tinkering…
I just received the email from Amazon informing me that my book is live on Kindle! Yay! Here’s the link:
http://www.amazon.com/Twirling-Streets-Noticed-Undiagnosed-ebook/dp/B00CB4WZT2/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1365675700&sr=1-1&keywords=undiagnosed+autism
Way cool. And now I hafta go play with that stuff.
Lisa, I wonder what kind of scores a typical romance would have? Check your stuff against your favorite author and let me know how you stack up (though I won’t be surprised if your scores don’t knock it out of the park!).
Heading over to read your post on The Muffin.
Somewhere, somehow, I heard about the readability thingy on Word and tried it…..years ago. After receiving a score of 6.something grade level…I thought my writing must really stink to get such a low grade score!! Little did I know THAT was what it should be! LOL I’m going to do that again…..as soon as I get internet…..hopefully soon! The cable/internet guy is here now!! Weeeeee!