R Donald Shepherd

Our Automatic Readability Checker takes a sample of your writing and calculates the number of sentences, words, syllables, and characters in your sample. Our program takes the output of these numbers and plugs them into seven popular readability formulas. These readability formulas (see below) will let you know the reading level and grade level of your text and help you determine if your audience can read your writing. (Note: We also have separate readability tools to calculate grade levels using the Fry Graph, Raygor Estimate Graph, Spache Formula, and New Dale-Chall Formula, located here: Free Readability Calculators and Text Tools). Directions: Paste in a sample of text and click "CHECK TEXT READABILITY." A sufficient sample size consists of 4-5 full sentences; approximately 200 - 600 words total. For larger texts, such as books, manuals, or dissertations, pull 1-2 sample sizes from each chapter. (Note: We limit the sample size to 3000 words. Sample sizes over 3K words are truncated.)