How readable is the UPC?

How readable are the Unpaid Pundits?

How ‘readable’ are the Unpaid Pundits? This site claims to have the answers! It visits your site and uses algorithms to decide how easy your site is to understand, using three criteria. I have liberally stolen from this site to make this entry. Please visit them and check them out so I won't feel so guilty. There is a lot of interesting stuff on there. And I suppose it could be a useful tool for improving one's writing.

Gunning-Fog index: gives a rough measure of how many years of schooling it would take someone to understand the content.

Flesch Reading Ease: gives an index number that rates the text on a 100-point scale. The higher the score, the easier it is to understand the document. Authors are encouraged to aim for a score of approximately 60 to 70.

Flesch-Kincaid grade level: Like the Gunning-Fog index, it is a rough measure of how many years of schooling it would take someone to understand the content. Negative results are reported as zero, and numbers over twelve are reported as twelve.

Now I know all the blah blah blah can’t quantify etc. objections. This is for fun. So, in descending order of Gun Fog Index here we go:

Fester

Gunning Fog Index 12.10

Flesch Reading Ease 59.74

Flesch-Kincaid Grade 8.74

Newshog

Gunning Fog Index 11.37

Flesch Reading Ease 61.25

Flesch-Kincaid Grade 8.02

Simianbrain

Gunning Fog Index 11.13

Flesch Reading Ease 61.87

Flesch-Kincaid Grade 7.76

Harkonnendog

Gunning Fog Index 9.92

Flesch Reading Ease 68.37

Flesch-Kincaid Grade 6.60

Pike Speak

Gunning Fog Index 9.32

Flesch Reading Ease 68.16

Flesch-Kincaid Grade 6.11

PSoTD

Gunning Fog Index 9.29

Flesch Reading Ease 65.12

Flesch-Kincaid Grade 6.21

Comment from Left Field

Gunning Fog Index 9.11

Flesch Reading Ease 66.34

Flesch-Kincaid Grade 5.80

Left of Center

Gunning Fog Index 8.80

Flesch Reading Ease 76.84

Flesch-Kincaid Grade 5.78

Blue Glow Worm

Gunning Fog Index 8.67

Flesch Reading Ease 65.46

Flesch-Kincaid Grade 5.52

My Analysis:

Libs like big words. Fester likes them the most. Note that I said “like” not “know.” I know big words, too! Some comparisons on the Fog Index scores:

6 TV guides, The Bible, Mark Twain

8 Reader's Digest

8 - 10 Most popular novels-

8 BLUE GLOW, LEFT OF CENTER,

9 COMMENTS FROM LEFT FIELD, PSOTD, PIKE SPEAK, HARKONNENDOG

10 Time, Newsweek

11 Wall Street Journal,

11 SHAMANIC, NEWSHOG

12 FESTER

14 The Times, The Guardian

15 - 20 Academic papers

Over 20 Only government sites can get away with this, because you can't ignore them.

Over 30 The government is covering something up

What does all this prove? You tell me.