Linsear Write

Linsear Write is a readability metric for English text, purportedly developed for the United States Air Force to help them calculate the readability of their technical manuals. [ [http://www.arkbar.com/Ark_Lawyer_Mag/Articles/JURYFall02.html Arkansas Bar Association | What's New ] ] It is one of many such readability metrics, but is specifically designed to calculate the United States grade level of a text sample based on sentence length and the number words used that have three or more syllables. [ [http://www.oleandersolutions.com/linsearwrite.html Linsear Write Readability Formula] ]

The Formula

* Find a 100-word sample from your writing.
* Calculate the easy words (defined as two syllables or less) and place a number "1" over each word, even including a, an, the, and other simple words.
* Calculate the hard words (defined as three syllables or more) and place a number "3" over each word as pronounced by the dictionary.
* Multiply the number of easy words times "1."
* Multiply the number of hard words times "3."
* Add the two previous numbers together.
* Divide that total by the number of sentences.
* If your answer is >20, divide by "2," and that is your answer.
* If your answer is <20 or equal to 20, subtract "2," and then divide by "2." That is your answer. [ [http://www.csun.edu/~vcecn006/read1.html Readability Helps The Level ] ]

Usage

As of March 2008, very little information about this formula and its implementations exists in popular or academic literature.

External links

* [http://www.readabilitystudio.com Readability Studio] Windows based program that can calculate this test

References