Word Perfect and MS Word provide some statistics that are helpful to writers in meeting certain criteria for readability, as some magazines and newspapers like the 'duh' factor kept super-low. In Word, these "readability statistics" are an option one can see after completing Spell Check. I think, in WP, it's part of Grammatik.
1) Words per Sentence (this is an average of all sentences. FYI, twelve words per sentence is the duh standard for some paperback "hack" novels.)
2) Characters per Word (again, an average. Four characters per word - yes - is what they like.
3) Very handy is the Flesch Reading Ease score. WP and MS Word provide this, and I don't believe it costs anything to use the formula. I think it's very old.
4) Grade Level (this has a specific name, which I can't recall now, having neither of the big hogs on my computer, but it scores the writing as a grade-level. A "1" is first grade. A 47 is a theoretical "47th grade." One of William Faulkner's convoluted paragraphs actually earns this level. This might be called simply "Readability."
After years of using Atlantis, these are the only things I strongly miss, and could benefit from. The new "actual time spent typing" is awesome! MS Word won't show you that. : )
Anyway, these would be great, and it seems they shouldn't take much code. I don't know - you guys are the experts.
Keep it up!
Loren W.
Readbility Statistics?
Reading level
Very interesting.
I have seen these measures before, but, very honestly, I never paid much attention to them.
I took a chapter from a novel that I am working on and tested it here:
http://www.readabilityformulas.com/free ... -tests.php
The link above runs the text through seven tests. Overall, I received a rating of 7th-grade level.
In Word, with Flesch-Kincaid, I had something between 6th and 7th grade.
What is interesting is this. While it is true that I write with great clarity (that is always my aim), I would have thought that the difficulty level would be a tad higher. The novel is about a dog, but the narration is from an adult point of view.
Nonetheless, the results were fairly consistent. I had a 9th-grade level on one of them, but the others were 6-7th grade.
I have seen these measures before, but, very honestly, I never paid much attention to them.
I took a chapter from a novel that I am working on and tested it here:
http://www.readabilityformulas.com/free ... -tests.php
The link above runs the text through seven tests. Overall, I received a rating of 7th-grade level.
In Word, with Flesch-Kincaid, I had something between 6th and 7th grade.
What is interesting is this. While it is true that I write with great clarity (that is always my aim), I would have thought that the difficulty level would be a tad higher. The novel is about a dog, but the narration is from an adult point of view.
Nonetheless, the results were fairly consistent. I had a 9th-grade level on one of them, but the others were 6-7th grade.