When you’re writing content, make sure to measure its readability score. You can do this via Microsoft Word, but there are other tools you can use as well.
The two most common measurements we use are:
- Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease – the higher your score, the easier your content is to read. We like to aim for 70 and above, but 60 and above is usually more realistic
- Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level – the lower the grade, the easier your content is to understand. We like to aim for 8 and below, with 9 being the highest
Improving readability
If you’re following the GlobalScot content guidelines, you should be on your way to good readability already. Simple language and short, well-structured sentences all play a key part in readability.
If the content you’re working on is scoring poorly, think about which sentences you could break up and which words you could replace with simpler versions. You can use online tools like readable.com or hemingwayapp.com to help point out potential issues in your writing.
And remember - these measurements are usually based on a formula that considers sentence length and word length. This means they don’t always take into account the context of the word, sentence or page. Use these as guidelines, but remember to use your own common sense as well as feedback from real users.