Readability scales can help you make your persuasive copywriting more accessible to your audience.

You’ve just read my Have It Your Way article, right? According to my Microsoft Word program, that article has a Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of 7.6 (which means folks half way through the 7thgrade can understand that article). It has a Flesch Reading Ease score of 63.3 percent (which means 63.3 percent of all readers can understand what they’ve read). There are 13.8 words per sentence (those for whom English is a second language shouldn’t have much trouble reading the article). The average word has 4.6 characters (pretty good). And 5 percent of the sentences are written in the passive voice (not bad). According to a different program, my article has a Fog Index of 8.7 (another grade-level reading score).

Is your head hurting yet? Number-talk has that effect on some folks. But these are numbers you’ll want to consider when you evaluate the copy that is going to persuade your customers to take the action you want them to take.

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