Fresh ideas on readability and a "quick and easy " formula are offered for readers ' reactions. SMOG Grading — – a New Readability Formula

formula that saves time. " The panel immediately below gives a method of assessing readability which is even quicker—and so simple that one statistician who glanced at an earlier version of this paper thought that it was a "put on, " a fake. Although this system, SMOG Grading, is laughably simple, it is in fact more valid than previous readability formulas. The rest of this paper is devoted to substantiating that claim. SMOG Grading 1. Count 10 consecutive sentences near the beginning of the text to be assessed, 10 in the middle and 10 near the end. Count as a sentence any string of words ending with a period, question mark or exclamation point. 2. In the 30 selected sentences count every word of three or more syllables. Any string of letters or numerals beginning and ending with a space or punctuation mark should be counted if you can distinguish at least three syllables when you read it aloud in context. If a polysyllabic word is repeated, count each repetition. 3. Estimate the square root of the number of polysyllabic words counted. This is done by taking the square root of the nearest perfect square. For example, if the count is 95, the nearest perfect square is 100, which yields a square root of 10. If the count lies roughly between two perfect squares, choose the lower number. For instance, if the count is 110, take the square root of 100 rather than that of 121. 4. Add 3 to the approximate square root. This gives the SMOG Grade, which is the reading grade that a person must have reached if he is to understand fully the text assessed