If you work around the web, you may have heard the term Flesch-Kincaid score or FK score thrown around. The thing is this score is rarely explained unless you’re a copywriter. It’s a measure of readability, and you should pay attention to it if you’re doing anything involving audiences.
What is Readability?
Readability is a fancy way of saying easy to read. It used to also apply to handwriting legibility, but that’s become less of an essential skill over time. Today’s readability applies to entire documents and websites. The more readable a piece is, the more people can read it and grasp the concepts.
History of the Flesch-Kincaid Score
The Flesch-Kincaid goes by many names these days. However, when it was first developed in the 1940s, it was merely the Flesch score. The creator, Rudolf Flesch, designed it to ensure the newspapers were readable. Flesch was an avid supporter of the Plain English movement. His creation was a mathematical formula that could rate without bias.
The original formula looked like the following and produced a score between 0 and 100. With this formula, most teenagers can understand scores between 60 and 80.
206.835-1.015*(words/sentences)-84.6*(syllables/words)
In 1976, the US Navy revisited the idea of the Flesch reading score. John Kincaid and a team of researchers used the formula as a base for their new grade level readability formula. The Navy uses the scores to check the readability of its manuals and instructions.
The grade level formula looks like the following. The results are more translatable than the previous formula.
0.39*(words/sentences)+11.8*(syllables/words)-15.59.
The two formulas have an inverse relationship to each other, so as grade level goes up, the original readability score goes down. You may see either method used today. People rarely do the calculations by hand, however.
Obtaining a Flesch-Kincaid Score
There are two accessible places to get a Flesch-Kincaid score. The first is from your word processor. Software like Word simply needs a simple settings change, and then your document will produce the readability scores after you use the editor. The other option is one of the many websites built around the formulas.
Flesch-Kincaid Scores and Copywriting
For writers, and especially web copywriters, Flesch-Kincaid scores are a necessity. In the USA, the average reading level is roughly 8th grade. That means if the piece you write exceeds that, you need to modify it if it’s for the general public rather than a specific group. Even then, you may want to change it.
By using the Flesch-Kincaid score for guidance, you can help create a web everyone can enjoy.