From the course: Learning to Write for the Web

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Solution: Calculate the reading level of a piece of text

Solution: Calculate the reading level of a piece of text

From the course: Learning to Write for the Web

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Solution: Calculate the reading level of a piece of text

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- Ok, let's talk about the reading level of the exercise text. Just to be clear up front, I didn't make this text hard to read on purpose, it's something I took from the web. It was produced by the Education Department at a University. If you counted pretty much the same as I did, you'd of found 4.4 sentences and 174 syllables. I won't be surprised if your numbers are slightly different from mine. Sometimes the way we pronounce words leads to different numbers of syllables. It also depends whether you count acronyms as one syllable per letter, or as a single word, depending upon how the acronym is pronounced. So long as you're in the same general range as my number, that's fine. Plotting my syllable count and sentence count on the graph, gives me a reading level of 15. That's equivalent to someone studying for an advanced degree. Now, remember that we said Homepages should be written at a fifth grade level, Content pages at an eighth grade level, and Supporting details should go no…

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