Want to improve the readability of your content? Wondering what your Flesch-Kincaid score means in Word? Want to check readability in Word on macOS? We’ve got all those answers and more in this detailed how-to, starting from the most recent version of Word for Windows and macOS: Word for Microsoft 365.
The following steps work for Word for Microsoft 365, Word for Microsoft 365 for Mac and Word 2021 versions.
If you have Word 2013 or later (up to 2021), you’ll need to turn on the Readability feature in order to use it. Here’s how to do it in Windows:
And here’s how to do it in macOS:
Anytime you want to check readability in Word, you can do so through the grammar check.
In Windows: Press F7 to start the spelling and grammar checker and click Show Readability Statistics.
In macOS. Click on Tools > Spelling and Grammar > Editor. Then click on Documents stats in the insight section at the bottom right.
You’ve got your readability statistics, now what? The secret to making the most out of your readability check in Word is understanding what those numbers mean. Most of them are self-explanatory things like your word count and character count, the average number of sentences per paragraph and words per sentence.
But if you want to measure readability beyond just scratching the surface, you’ll want to check the other two scores that appear in the box:
Flesch Kincaid is a popular and common readability formula that scores readability based on the average length of your sentences and the average number of syllables per word. When your readability check in Word is finished, you’ll receive a number from 0-100.
In short, the higher the score, the easier your content is to read. Here’s a quick guide that gives you an idea of the readability of your content based on your score in Microsoft Word:
Assigning a school level grade to readability is generally understood even in countries that don’t use this system. Most Americans tend to read at an 8th or 9th grade level.
Here’s an example of what the end result looks like:
If you commonly write in a language other than English, you may not see all of the above information when checking readability in Word. In some cases, readability scores are unavailable so keep that in mind as you write.
There are a few instances when checking readability in Word could do more harm than good, including:
Readability checkers are ideal for general writing, but when it comes to highly specialized or complex writing (think scientific papers or legal documents) the readability scores might not accurately reflect the comprehension level needed to understand them. It’s best to rely on the expertise and experience of your target audience in this case, and their familiarity with the subject matter, rather than relying on readability scores.
Readability checkers, like those in Microsoft Word, often check things like word complexity, grammar rules and sentence length, but in cases where you’re writing creative fiction or poetry, these fules
Although readability checkers follow standard grammar and language conventions, it’s important to remember that language varies across regions and contexts. Depending on your target audience or your goals for your content, you may need to adopt a more specific style that keeps these cultural conventions in mind.
Just as with cultural and regional audiences, readability scores also aren’t ironclad when it comes to niche audiences. If you’re writing something highly specific, you’ll need to depend more on their familiarity with the subject, their background knowledge and general context while adjusting your writing style accordingly.
If you’re working in the context of translated content or content in multiple languages, keep in mind that AI can’t yet account for nuances across languages, which leads to different v variations in sentences, a lack of understanding of idiomatic expressions and much more which may in turn inaccurately reflect a readability score.
While Flesch-Kincaid is a popular readability formula and at the time of this writing, the only readability measurement tool in Microsoft Word, it is by no means the only one out there.
The Originality.AI text readability tool goes beyond what’s possible in Microsoft Word. This comprehensive, free readability checker leverages all of the following readability checkers to give you the full picture of your content’s readability across many different models, including Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease and Flesch Kincaid Grade Level as well as:
Get the full picture of your content readability by analyzing it across many different readability formulas. In addition to checking readability, Originality.AI’s free readability checker will highlight any issues in your text as well as highlight the passages that are hardest to read. Keep in mind that the free readability checker is limited to 10,000 words and for best results, you’ll want to add a minimum of 100 words.
To get access to check readability of larger amounts of text as well as check to see if your content hits the “sweet spot” needed to rank well in Google, upgrade to the Premium version of Originality.AI. Beyond readability, you’ll also get details on your keyword density for single keywords as well as keyphrases at no extra cost. This makes it an excellent tool for content publishers, search engine optimization professionals and content creators.
Plus, you can also scan for plagiarism and AI writing for as little as 1 cent per 100 words, making it an affordable alternative to paid keyword density checkers and readability checkers. Try it now for yourself and take steps to improve your readability in Microsoft Word and beyond!
It is a well known and almost universally accepted fact that Google will reward your content for something called “Readability”. As a result there have been many off the shelf content marketing tools ( think Grammarly, Hemingway readable.com etc) that have attempted to help people publish content with optimal Readability scores. The thought is that if content is published according to recommendations of these tools, they will be more likely to rank on Google Search Engines.
Readable.com (also known as readable.io) is an online tool designed to measure the readability of text. It combines a variety of readability formulas including Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning Fog, Coleman Liau and several others to give a general score as to the readability of a particular piece of content.
Grammarly is one of the most popular online writing and correction tools and for good reason. With its grammar and spelling corrections and its AI-powered writing improvement suggestions, it’s a powerful program designed to help writers, content creators, students and anyone who needs to make their writing clearer and more concise.
