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Readability Score Checker

Measure Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid grade level, sentence length, syllables per word and passive voice. See which sentences are dragging the score down.

Paste your text for a readability breakdown — the standard scores plus the specific sentences that are hardest to read, so you know where to cut rather than just how bad it is.

How to use it

1. Paste your text.
2. Read the Flesch score and grade level together — one without the other is easy to misread.
3. Open the longest sentences list and split anything over about 25 words.

How to read the two scores together

Flesch Reading Ease runs from 0 to 100, higher being easier; 60 to 70 is plain English. Flesch-Kincaid grade level expresses the same signal as US school years. A text can score 65 (fine) and grade 9 (also fine) — they agree more often than not.

Both formulas are built from exactly two inputs: sentence length and syllables per word. That means there are only two levers available to you — shorter sentences, and shorter words.

Where these formulas mislead

Syllable counting is a heuristic, and it treats every polysyllabic word as equally hard. 'Photography' and 'responsibility' are not equally difficult, but both cost the same in the formula. Technical vocabulary is necessary in technical writing and should not be removed to chase a number.

Use the score to spot sentences that are structurally tangled, not as a target to hit. A page at grade 12 about distributed databases is not failing; a page at grade 16 about choosing a kettle probably is.

The three edits that actually move the number

Split sentences at conjunctions. Most sentences over 30 words contain an 'and', a 'but' or a 'which' that marks a natural seam. Cutting there produces two sentences that read better than the original and need no rewriting of the ideas.

Replace nominalisations with verbs. 'The implementation of the configuration requires the specification of parameters' is four nouns doing a verb's work. 'To configure the tool, specify its parameters' says the same thing in a third of the words and drops the syllable count sharply.

Delete the throat-clearing. Phrases like 'it is important to note that' and 'in order to' add syllables without adding meaning. Removing them is the cheapest readability win available, and it almost always improves the writing rather than just the score.

Do those three things and the Flesch score moves on its own. Rewriting specifically to raise the number — swapping 'use' for 'utilise' in reverse, or breaking sentences at arbitrary points — produces text that scores well and reads worse.

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