Armed with a shiny new netbook, I was happily sitting in the local library drafting copy with the Google Docs online word processor. As I checked the text, I was surprised to see grade-level rankings at least twice the fifth- or sixth-grade ratings I usually shoot for, and reading ease scores way below my average.
(As an aside, aiming for a sixth-grade reading level score doesn’t mean you’re literally targeting 11-year-olds. It means that since your copy is going to be read on screen, you should use shorter sentences and paragraphs to make the text easier on the readers’ eyes).
Later on, I imported the copy into Word for cleaning up and formatting, and noticed that the paragraphs seemed frighteningly long and complicated. Since Google Docs uses a far wider screen than Word’s default margins, the effect is similar to typing on a landscape page.
A normal-looking paragraph in Google Docs is actually way longer than it should be for comfortable reading, and that increased length boosts your grade-level ranking and slashes reading ease dramatically.
The scores for this Word-created post? 6.1 grade level and 96.4 reading ease.
