Article Readability: Determining Reading Level

There are several tools that assess article readability. You can use WORD. Here are the directions. Copy a few paragraphs from an article into WORD.

Step 1: Turn ON readability statistics

1. Open Word
2. Go to File → Options
3. Click Proofing
4. Under When correcting spelling and grammar in Word, check:
   • Check grammar with spelling
   • Show readability statistics
5. Click OK

If “Show readability statistics” is unchecked, Word will never show Flesch scores.

Step 2: Run the checker correctly

1. Paste the article into a Word document
2. Go to Review → Editor
3. Click Spelling & Grammar
4. Let it finish checking the entire document
5. When the checker completes, Word will display a Readability Statistics box

You should now see:

• Flesch Reading Ease
• Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level
• Average sentences per paragraph
• Average words per sentence

The statistics appear only after the checker finishes — not during.

If You Still Don’t See It (Very Common)

Possible reasons:

• You clicked Editor → Insights instead of Spelling & Grammar
• Grammar checking is disabled
• You’re in Word Online (browser version)

Word Online does NOT support readability statistics

There are other tools too.

You also can use Google Docs.

Google Docs

1. Paste text into Google Docs
2. Go to Extensions → Add-ons
3. Install ProWritingAid
4. Run the analysis

Slightly less precise than Word but acceptable.

There are readability calculators like these:

ReadabilityFormulas.com

Online-Utility.org