On Reading Levels

I’d say this is mildly depressing….

Except that it’s not.

I write for a living, and most publications — like newspapers — have a target reading age of junior high school.

Even someone like Hemingway has a low reading age. It’s a function of the writing style employed, and tools like the website are, at best, stat crunching tools. What’s the average word length? What’s the average sentence length? Simplicity is confused for simpleness.

Now if only I could find that website that tests a website for the writer’s gender based on word usage. The last time I found that I do believe I was something like seventy-percent female… 😆

Published by Allyn

A writer, editor, journalist, sometimes coder, occasional historian, and all-around scholar, Allyn Gibson is the writer for Diamond Comic Distributors' monthly PREVIEWS catalog, used by comic book shops and throughout the comics industry, and the editor for its monthly order forms. In his over ten years in the industry, Allyn has interviewed comics creators and pop culture celebrities, covered conventions, analyzed industry revenue trends, and written copy for comics, toys, and other pop culture merchandise. Allyn is also known for his short fiction (including the Star Trek story "Make-Believe,"the Doctor Who short story "The Spindle of Necessity," and the ReDeus story "The Ginger Kid"). Allyn has been blogging regularly with WordPress since 2004.

3 thoughts on “On Reading Levels

  1. Maximum Bob, you’re in the UK, yes?

    Elementary school is ages 5 to 11 (roughly).
    Junior High is ages 12 to 14 (roughly).
    High School is ages 15 to 18 (roughly).

    Hope that helps. 🙂

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