And I’m proud of it. I want this blog to be accessible to most people, not just to geniuses (like John Hobbins’ blog and, more surprisingly, ElShaddai Edwards’) or postgrads (like Iyov’s). Hat tip to Suzanne.
UPDATE, 9th November: Suzanne has blogged further on this in response to various suggestions that this test is unreliable. She linked to a site offering better defined readability tests, which are probably also more reliable. That site rates this blog with a Fog Index of 8.89, which is in the range for most popular novels, and a Flesch-Kincaid Grade (corresponding to a school grade) of 5.56. I am happy with these results. But, as Suzanne suggests, the results may be affected by sidebars.
Sigh. I guess I’ve truly managed to lose myself and my blog in a wilderness of words… anyway, I’m doing an informal survey of Blog Reading Levels and translation preferences on my so-called Genius site – I would welcome your response when you have a moment.
ElShaddai, you probably just need shorter sentences. At least that is the main factor for calculating reading level. There are some very long sentences in “Wrestling with preterism” which can easily be broken up. Also your song lyrics may make the reading level seem high, but don’t stop them. But I was genuinely surprised that your figure came out so high.
You’re probably right. When I started blogging, I told myself not to approach it academically or too formally, but just to get thoughts down and see what came of it.
As such, I’ve tended to write as I think without the benefit of a formal review. And usually I’m writing in a limited time window, e.g. over lunch at work or in morning before the the kids wake up and I have to leave for work, so it’s usually write, look it over for errors and hit “Publish”.
I’ve enjoyed the various discussions so far, but will try to make the posts more accessible/readable to everyone. I’ve been thinking about working on a “Preterism 101” series – that’ll be a good challenge for me to write simple.
Thanks, Peter. I’ve added the reading level thang to my blog now. I’m somewhat relieved to see the status, I was wondering if my sloppy English would lead to me being rated as “Primary school” level or something…
Alastair, I think most people’s sloppy English would lead them to be rated as “Genius” or similar – especially if they don’t use enough punctuation. This, I think, is the major reason for a high reading level assessment, except in actual high level scholarly works.
peter–
i think your assessment of what makes a genius site is correct. my ash-and-trash site where i keep odd notes about things i’ve read is a ‘genius’ site. could have fooled me…
ElShaddai, […] There are some very long sentences in “Wrestling with preterism” which can easily be broken up.
Ironically, when I “score” just that specific post URL, it comes out at a “Junior High School” reading level…
Then again, I’ve made a few “fluffy” posts today and can happily report that the blog overall is now scoring at a “High School” reading level.
I’m beginning to wonder if there is something seriously wrong with the algorithm being used by this site.
I’m beginning to wonder if there is something seriously wrong with the algorithm being used by this site.
That thought had crossed my mind.
Fog Index: 9.59
Flesch Reading Ease: 66.23
Flesch-Kincaid Grade: 6.29
The numbers are not significantly different for my “Wrestling with preterism” post URL.
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EXTREMLY beautyfull Header!
Thanks, Barbara. I think it is from somewhere on the Prairies – not a picture I found. We don’t have vistas like that in England.