Why writing creatively is art to read

How many of us who are not grammar professionals know what the Flesch Reading Ease test is, I wonder? Or the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level test?

I’d heard of neither till today. Until the newly installed, latest version of our favourite word processor kept telling me my grammar was bad, until I was compelled to delve into the nuts-and-bolts and teach it a lesson, teach it that what it considers bad grammar is actually something called art, what machines and others of its ilk may struggle to cope with on the path to omnipresence and domination.

The Flesch Reading Ease test gives one’s writing a score of 0-100, depending upon readability. 100 being the easiest text to read, 0 being the most challenging.

Further research uncovers interesting results when applying this test to elements of some well-known texts. The score for extracts from classic literature shoots past 0 — challenging reading — into the -100s, and yet the literature used is not particularly challenging and has been read by many of us. This begs me to ask how credible these tests are.

Then there is the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level test, which tests readability compared with U.S. educational grade levels — not something I am familiar with. 8.0, for example, can be understood by an eighth grader.

Whilst many may see these tests as useful, especially in the field of education, I see no value if they can be misused by those of us lacking confidence to convince ourselves we have no voice and should remain quiet, forever avoiding a desire to put pen to paper, so to speak.

Although, to a casual writer wishing to learn or improve, these may be practical tools if used simply for a quick-and-dirty appraisal of our words.

Personally, readability in somebody’s words and text is unimportant, so long as the reader understands the message the writer had hoped to convey.

I flagellate myself, of course, over my own efforts, since words, reading and writing — plus grammar to a lesser extent — have been motivating drivers since as long as I can remember, but that is not to say I punish other people for poor writing style and content, or chastise people in the pursuit of readability. We shouldn’t. It’s not fair.

I urge everybody to write. Just pick up a pen and do it. And yes, I urge people to wrote by both hand and keyboard. Simply say what you want, and say it how you want to say it. Don’t pander to the needs of a formula that attempts to dictate readability.

Pandering to the needs of a formula is not more important then the art of writing itself.

To understand the formulas used, we need to determine the average sentence length (ASL) — number of words divided by the number of sentences — and the average number of syllables per word (ASW) — number of syllables divided by the number of words.

And herein lies the crux of the problem for both writers and potential readers hoping for something juicy: using a formula to attain a higher readability requires us to use shorter words in shorter sentences. Great for the formula, but dire for creativity!

• Flesch Reading Ease = 206.835 – (1.015 x ASL) – (84.6 x ASW)
• Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level = (0.39 x ASL) + (11.8 x ASW) – 15.59

Who has enough time on their hands to figure out this kind of stuff!?

(Coincidently, my word processor suggested I use ‘figure out’ in the above statement instead of my original word of choice — ‘determine’. Whether this improves the sentence or ‘dumbs it down’ — my choice of words — is debatable.)

Now, to deliver the coup de grace. 

• “She sells sea shells on the sea shore” offers me 100 for the Flesch Reading Ease test (wholly readable).
• “Shells the sells sea she shore sea on” also offers me 100 for the Flesch Reading Ease test (wholly readable). REALLY?! I need to return to education, to school, to the womb, since I find this wholly unreadable — what am I missing?

Moreover, there are many other flaws and ambiguities surrounding how a word processor decides what is the delimiter of a sentence, for example, or what variants of word-ending should be ignored when counting syllables. And so forth.

If your word processor supports the Flesch Reading Ease test or the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level test, you should be able to enable and view these statistics by something in the Options, somewhere. In my case, I enable “Show readability statistics” in the Proofing options.

However, I suggest these statistics are approached with caution. I suggest writing is an art. I suggest creativity in art is more important than following a formula.

And to anybody wondering about this article: 57.3 for Flesch Reading Ease test and 9.6 for the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level test. Whatever that is meant to be telling me. Besides, I began this journey with an expectation of uncovering something juicy, since anything called the “Flesch Reading Ease” certainly grabs my attention. Alas, however, after delving deeper into the flesh of the topic, it’s nothing too sensational.

Word Processor Dumbness List

"Consider using a simple word," it says! Unlikely, my friend.

• Replace 'attempts' with 'tries'
• Replace 'determine' with 'figure out'
• Replace 'herein' with 'here'
• Replace 'attain' with 'reach'
• Replace 'requires' with 'needs'

Peter Mulville has over 23-years’ professional experience focusing on organisational challenges, such as business processes and improvements, facilitation and enablement, service management orientation, and strategy. Experienced in leadership, coaching, mediation, team-velocity and the concept of People-First, Peter is critical thinking, complex problem solving and uses Emotional intelligence and body language to nurture a culture of trust, respect, communication, and cohesion. Peter is also a Project Manager and well-versed and experienced in governance, risk, and compliance, IT information security and SQL business intelligence.

Keywords: #MatsudaMulville #MatsudaMulvilleThinking #Creativity #CriticalThinking #EmotionalIntelligence #FleschReadingEase #FleschKincaidGradeLevel