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Rank: Active Ink Slinger
Joined: 11/6/2009
Posts: 11
Location: Hertfordshire
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Having published my first story and taken on board some constructive criticism I started googling to see what I could learn about story writing! I came across the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Index Calculator which looks good and might interest others! Copy and paste your story, paragraph, etc. into the calculator and it gives you two readings. The Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score indicates how easy a text is to read. A high score implies an easy text. In comparison comics typically score around 90 while legalese can get a score below 10. The Flesch-Kincaid Grade level indicates the grade a person will have to have reached to be able to understand the text. E.g. a grade level of 7 means that a seventh grader will be able to understand the text. Here's the link, ://.standards-schmandards.com/exhibits/rix/index.php 
Living for the sun & sins!
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Rank: Forum Guru
Joined: 1/27/2009
Posts: 1,008
Location: NothWest, Indiana
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Thanks whip. Most people read on a 6Th grade level and think on a 4Th so as the old saying goes " Keep it Simple Stupid"
Carpe Diem
Red out
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Rank: Matriarch
Joined: 12/6/2006
Posts: 22,408
Location: Sydney, Australia
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Thanks Whiphand. Once you get to 20 posts your links will work  http://www.standards-schmandards.com/exhibits/rix/index.php
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Rank: Lurker
Joined: 11/30/2006
Posts: 327,262
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Hey that was fun. One of my stories got a grade level of 8th grade, and a 62 for ease of reading. I think it's because I have a Spillane-style of writing. I want to stress this doesn't measure the actual quality of the story, though. Don't be alarmed. I wonder if somebody notices the smut being pushed through that thing now. 
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Rank: Active Ink Slinger
Joined: 11/6/2009
Posts: 11
Location: Hertfordshire
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Its great fun (and of course a learning tool) to put writing through then alter it and re-try! Or try putting the whole story up first and then compare with shorter sections to find the 'weakest link'
Living for the sun & sins!
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Rank: Active Ink Slinger
Joined: 11/17/2008
Posts: 17
Location: Columbus, Georgia USA, United States
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I think you'll all enjoy this...
I took the introduction to one of my stories and ran it through the calculator. Here are the results:
Result
Method used: Flesch-Kincaid (English).
Flesch-Kincaid Grade level: 13.
Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score: 44.
Then I took the Prelude and ran it through the calculator. This is what I got:
Result
Method used: Flesch-Kincaid (English).
Flesch-Kincaid Grade level: 6.
Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score: 75.
After that, I took the first paragraph of Chapter One and ran it through the calculator. This is what I got:
Result
Method used: Flesch-Kincaid (English).
Flesch-Kincaid Grade level: 11.
Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score: 54.
Next I ran Chapter One as a whole and got this:
Result
Method used: Flesch-Kincaid (English).
Flesch-Kincaid Grade level: 10.
Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score: 59.
And finally, this is what the entire story received:
Result
Method used: Flesch-Kincaid (English).
Flesch-Kincaid Grade level: 8.
Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score: 65.
Okay, which is it? Do you have to have a college degree to read my stories; or, should you go ahead and drop out after elementary school?
Personally, I think you should probably play it safe and hit the bricks after the 9th grade. :)
Of course, it's possible that I may just suffer from a multiple personality disorder? That would explain everything; wouldn't it?
Opinions anyone?
Have some fun. Run a paragraph of your own stories through at a time and see what you get.
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Rank: Active Ink Slinger
Joined: 10/10/2009
Posts: 25
Location: Seattle
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I fed one of my stories through and it just said, "You Filthy Whore!"
Is that good?
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Rank: Active Ink Slinger
Joined: 2/1/2011
Posts: 23
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Thanks so much
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Rank: Purveyor of Poetry & Porn
Joined: 10/19/2009
Posts: 5,363
Location: Right here on Lush Stories...
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 I would advise not putting a lot of weight on the results of this thing...I ran a couple poems and stories through it and got similar results... Apparently my poems were written by a super-genius, but are unreadable...here is the result for "Lover's Story"... Result Method used: Flesch-Kincaid (English). Flesch-Kincaid Grade level: 59. Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score: -73. The Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score indicates how easy a text is to read. A high score implies an easy text. In comparison comics typically score around 90 while legalese can get a score below 10. Grade Level: 59? Readability: -73???A negative reading ease score???  On the other hand, as far as my stories go, I found out I might as well just hand some kindergarten kid a piece of paper and a box of crayons and have them write my stories for me...it would save me a lot of time and effort...
 You know you want it, you know you need it bad...get it now on Amazon.com...Lush Erotica, an Anthology of Award Winning Sex Stories
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Rank: Active Ink Slinger
Joined: 2/1/2011
Posts: 23
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Katrina busy unfurling her guitar cord tangled at her left foot , Melvin baritones "picture you upon knees' ,Katrina liberated from the snake pit of chords , replies to his sing song in a speaking voice 'What the fuck ? Romeo owns only one chair ? 'Melvin continuing 'Tea for Two' Katrina rolling her eyes like an annoyed waitress,deadpans 'Go figure ,dude has only one chair but enough tea for two" suppressing a giggle , Melvin belts out the next bar, 'No one near to see or here, ''Who the fuck would wanna eavesdrop on people drinking tea ,,,that's way too kinky for even Tommy O. Katrina strikes, nodding toward talented but tragic guitarist Tom O'Malley a wisp of a man , his forearms adorned with ornate grammatically incorrect matching tattoos the left reading to fast to live ,the right reading to young to die . 'We won't let it be known we only a telephone' , Melvin croons ,'this mudder phucker must be from Da Parish, too cheap 2 get a second chair , but got a Blackberry yet ain't givin' out the number ...that do even make a bit of sense " Katrina scoffs, Melvin,shaking his head full of Hendrix hair , 'Dawn will break .. you'll bake a cake '. She waves her arms like an over caffinated traffic cop marches toward him , " Hold up ! .hold up ! ,you freaking communisss you gots the wrong girl iffin' ya think Katrina Marie Trahan is baking a friggin' cake before she runs a brush cross her teeth"
11 TH GRADE .....58 on READABILTY
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Rank: Forum Guru
Joined: 10/27/2009
Posts: 1,275
Location: United States
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How completely depressing. Apparently all of my stories have a comprehension grade level of 6 or 7.
I've already got an idea for my next story:
See Dick.
See Jane.
See Dick fuck.
See Dick fuck Jane.
Holy shit! That returned:
Flesch-Kincaid Grade level: 5.
Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score: 67.
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Rank: Author
Joined: 10/22/2011
Posts: 2,005
Location: Expat in, Russia
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I had read this post previously and since then use the Flesch-Kincaid website to analyze my own writing
As Dirty Martini mentioned, poetry just does not work and I would obtain similar scores as him when checking my poetry.
I just finalized a story I wrote last year. The final chapter of "You Me" and obtained the following>
Method used: Flesch-Kincaid (English).
Flesch-Kincaid Grade level: 10.
Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score: 58.
The other chapters had similar results.
Then looked at a later story, "Coming to You" and obtained the following>
Flesch-Kincaid Grade level: 8.
Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score: 67.
Coincidentally, my last story "Collaring My Slut" had identical results.
It would seem that my writing had trending to easier reading but has stabilized.
Out of interest I checked the opening page of Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" which scored>
Flesch-Kincaid Grade level: 10.
Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score: 60.
Hemmingway's "Farewell to Arms" scored an even higher >
Flesch-Kincaid Grade level: 12.
Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score: 61.
John Grisham's "The Associate" scored a respectable>
Flesch-Kincaid Grade level: 11.
Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score: 54.
Interesting a recent NY Times story on "Selling Abroad, China" scored >
Flesch-Kincaid Grade level: 17.
Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score: 16.
And their report on the drug war in Mexico scored >
Flesch-Kincaid Grade level: 15.
Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score: 33.
CNN's story on U.S. Secretary of Commerce John Bryson scored >
Flesch-Kincaid Grade level: 13.
Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score: 25.
But how many still read the news unless it is on Comedy Central?
How do your stores score on readability?
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Rank: Active Ink Slinger
Joined: 6/4/2012
Posts: 30
Location: Belgium
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Tried it out on five stories. They all got: Grade: 5-7 Readability: 68-72 No, idea what I can do with this information thou...
Vacation with Teens
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Rank: Forum Guru
Joined: 5/16/2012
Posts: 370
Location: United States
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Am I the only one who saw the topic as "flesh kink-aid?"
My novel, The Society, is available now in the Kindle Store: http://www.amazon.com/The-Society-ebook/dp/B00BPF9U2I
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Rank: Forum Guru
Joined: 1/7/2012
Posts: 817
Location: United Kingdom
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Sensei wrote:Am I the only one who saw the topic as "flesh kink-aid?" Nope
Teased and Tormented -My very first story and competition entry is now up!
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Rank: Forum Guru
Joined: 8/12/2010
Posts: 397
Location: United States
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mmm fun calculator. It should be great to use it as first approach than clean and edit the writing and feed it again and check the score difference. Cool
I guess there's some kind of test/help for anything on the World Wide Web.
============
I also feed into the test :
"I write stories than wash my hands clean and provide pain relievers for the readers. See "Hokeed up on phonik wurked fur mee"
It told me in a language I could understand: you wusted yuur Monee. ask fur refuunds.
Be well everyone!
Practice what you know, and it will help to make clear what now you do not know. — Rembrandt
There is poetry as soon as we realize that we possess nothing. — John Cage
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Rank: Rookie Scribe
Joined: 6/29/2012
Posts: 1
Location: United States
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Just for those that have it. MS Word 2010 has this scale built into its spellchecker/grammar checker. It is easy to use. Any of these scales are only correct if done by sentence first (correcting those first for readability) and then by paragraph. If you do this scale by paragraph only, you will get higher scores than normal since it takes in sentence structure, words and punctuation into the overall score.
It takes more time this way, but the writing will flow better, at times. Other times, for complex scene sentences, this scale is totally wrong.
Poetry cannot be done on this scale.Just my 
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Rank: Alpha Blonde
Joined: 2/17/2010
Posts: 4,372
Location: In your dirty fantasies
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I plugged in my most recent story, The Blue Room, and got: Flesch-Kincaid Grade level: 10. Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score: 56. I'm good with that. Out of curiosity, I wrote a quick run-on sentence filled with overwrought descriptives and big vocabulary and got a Grade level of 19 and a read-ease score of 35. It's one of my pet peeves with a lot of writing - big words and overcooked descriptions doesn't make it better - it's often an annoyance to read. My english teacher used to compare it to the impact and simplicity of a great black dress. There's no need to embellish it with bows and frills and unnecessary adornments - it just takes away from the design. Same as with writing - stay away from the thesaurus and using too many adjectives and stick with words that are familiar to our everyday lives, especially when it comes to erotica.
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Rank: Chat Moderator
Joined: 12/18/2011
Posts: 2,248
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Dancing_Doll wrote: It's one of my pet peeves with a lot of writing - big words and overcooked descriptions doesn't make it better - it's often an annoyance to read. My english teacher used to compare it to the impact and simplicity of a great black dress. There's no need to embellish it with bows and frills and unnecessary adornments - it just takes away from the design. Same as with writing - stay away from the thesaurus and using too many adjectives and stick with words that are familiar to our everyday lives, especially when it comes to erotica. Yeah that would be me...  but I've only written one story soo hopefully I will get better. but for Tesoro's Special Welcome I got Flesch-Kincaid Grade level: 11. Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score: 61 Its interesting but I'm not sure what to do with this outcome
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Rank: The Right Rev of Lush
Joined: 7/3/2009
Posts: 2,534
Location: Lost in the ozone somewhere east of Luckenbach Tx,
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Try running a FK on some of your favorite authors. Most of them will have a surprisingly low grade level. Also, the FK leans toward smaller words and shorter sentences. That's why dialogue almost always registers a lower grade level than does narrative. Check it out. 
Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwords. - ROBERT HEINLEIN FROM: Becky -- FOR: Matt -- With Love a Festive contest winner - honest (audio version - very sexy) HOW HUMANS DO IT: a fish-eye view of sex an Editor's Pick - no kidding
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Rank: Forum Guru
Joined: 6/22/2012
Posts: 295
Location: ft myers, United States
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71.6................................total score on story ....i havent published it yet ...but for my first ...isnt too bad ....
Grade Levels
A grade level (based on the USA education system) is equivalent to the number of years of education a person has had. Scores over 22 should generally be taken to mean graduate level text.
Readability Formula Grade
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 12
Gunning-Fog Score 15
Coleman-Liau Index 5.8
SMOG Index 5.7
Automated Readability Index 13.4
Average Grade Level 10.4
Text Statistics
Character Count 3,094
Syllable Count 992
Word Count 843
Sentence Count 24
Characters per Word 3.7
Syllables per Word 1.2
Words per Sentence 35.1
Supported Languages
Several readability algorithms use syllable counting to determine their scores. The current syllable counter used here will only work with English text, so scores for other languages may be inaccurate.
The Coleman-Liau and Automated Readability Indexes do not use syllable counting, so should produce a reasonably accurate score in most European languages.
© 2011 – 2012 Added Bytes | Powered by the Text Statistics project.
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Rank: Author
Joined: 10/22/2011
Posts: 2,005
Location: Expat in, Russia
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I have seen several comments with people mentioned that they didn't know what to do with the score...
I would suggest, use it to to help you to write for your intended audience.
Sentence structure and word choices that are below/above the reader will tend to quickly lose the reader.
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