Is it possible to get readability statistics using Pages? If so, how?

Hi Gabrielle,

What were the instructions given you for MS Word?

Do you have a name for the readability measure your instructor wants? (There are several.)

I'm not aware of a built in readability estimating function in Pages, but it may be possible to do the calculations elsewhere.

There are some readability tests online into which you can paste your text and obtain several standard readabiity scores.

Regrds,

Barry

G,

Here's a site, such as Barry mentioned, where you can get one readability measure, in one of five languages:

Just copy your text in Pages and Paste into the site's dialog box.

I remember when I looked this one up that there were more to choose from.

Jerry

I find these about as useful as lips on a chicken.

…or judging food by the "nutrition" label on the backs of packets.

1. If you are getting your food from a packet that could, maybe, possibly, on the off chance, be the problem already

2. If you can't tell the bleeding obvious just by looking at it, you are lost already. No amount of statistics is going to do anything but further confuse the already bewildered.

3. If you haven't noticed the more tools we have like readability calculators, grammar checkers and spell checkers, the worse the end result.

It is a little bit like jogging magazines. If you are reading it, you are not doing it.

Peter

"I find these about as useful as lips on a chicken."

Some truth there, of course, but if the controller of the treasury (full of marks to dispense—or not— to students) demands a measurement of readability, then the provider of the work (struggling student) has a need to obtain and forward those figures.

Regards,

Barry

It is a mark of our times that that is seen as achieving the end result. Nobody closes the loop to check the result of this policy actually does what it is supposed to.

I have just migrated from a VDSL modem to an ADSL2+ router. A painfully drawn out procedure that lead to days of calls to support trying to fix what was broke (still ongoing). The ISP has an automated survey that quizes me every single time how satisfied I was, and asks me to rate the support on a long list of factors.

This keeps some middle manager in employment collating the results and filing reports on something they clearly have no grasp of.

As I pointed out, if the feedback was doing anything the obvious problems and failures would actually get fixed and the surveys would not be necessary. As it is they are measuring and printing out the declining life signs of the patient whilst the witchdoctor dances around the patient rattling his bones and burning feathers.

Apple is as guilty of this as every other bloated bureaucracy. Computers just speed up the process of generating what is mostly rubbish, and almost universally misunderstood and ignored "feedback".

Peter

Hi Gabrielle,

I did some checking on two online readabiity calculators I found online, plus the one linked in Jerry's post.

Sites checked were:

1. Reading Score dot com
   
2. Readability Calculator
   
3. Readability Index Calculator

My first sample was a newspaper article (a sports section story) from today's Vancouver Sun, the other two were online articles discussing the availability of the tool in MS Word, followed by the scores reported for their articles.

The two articles are here and here.

Regards,

Barry

…and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address? Or Martin Luther's "I have a dream" speech?

How do they score?

Peter

High for Lincoln (11, 11, 13 grade levels), less so for MLK (9.2, 9.7, 11) as expected. Neither of these were written to be read (other than by their authors), though.

Barry

Lincoln 10.9 / 65.7 11.24 / 62.9 13 / 48

MLK 9.1 / 66.1 9.67 / 62 11 / 50

But then they were both rubbishy speakers.

Peter

NB The fact that there is such statistically significant variation between the 3 results in itself would set the alarm bells ringing in any questioning mind. So …not at all.