Writing The Winnower

SMOG Readability Calculator May 27, 2007

I think I’m getting sick. I’ve been sneezing a lot and have this weird taste in my throat, and I don’t think it’s just allergies anymore. I’m allergic to grass, which is fun, although it means my brother gets to mow the lawn instead of me. The senior prom is Tuesday. And being sick during that would be a sad way to end my high school years. 🙂

I think I have the prologue and chapter 1 right where I want them. Since both of them offer very isolated views of the world, they can endure a whole lot of changes without changing the world much. The isolation changes at chapter 2, which means it will require a lot more careful editing. I’m still adding stuff to the timeline document, and working on ideas for short stories and fantasy creatures so that the world will be a lot more fleshed out. Ever since Tolkien, that kind of thing is almost necessary.

And onto the main point of this post: this is an online readability calculator which uses the SMOG formula (there are others) for determining the reading level required for a passage of text. It’s good to know what kind of people will be able to understand your book. If its language is so complicated that only college-level students willl be able to read it, that could be a problem.

So far, this is the only free online readability test I’ve found:

https://www.harrymclaughlin.com/SMOG.htm

Just type in a short passage and click the button. It will return all sorts of statistics, including the grade level.

The only problem is that it accepts a maximum of 2000 words, and that some passages will score a higher ranking than others. It’s best to run as many words as you can through it so you get results that are more indicative of more of your writing. The Winnower scored from 7-8, which is around junior high school level. To raise or lower the grade, you can change the complexity of the words you use, or change your sentences’ lengths.