Most people overestimate how clear their writing is. The text makes sense to them because they already understand the subject — but the reader doesn't. The gap between 'I understood what I wrote' and 'a stranger would understand what I wrote' is exactly what readability tools measure. Finding that gap is the first step to closing it.
The two things that make writing hard to read
- Long sentences — anything over 25 words starts to lose readers. The average sentence in well-edited online content is 15–20 words. A 40-word sentence forces the reader to hold too many clauses in working memory.
- Long words — multi-syllable words are harder to parse, not because readers can't understand them, but because they slow the reading pace. 'Utilize' (3 syllables) carries the same meaning as 'use' (1 syllable), and 'use' lets the reader move on faster.
The numbers to aim for
- Flesch Reading Ease: aim for 60–70 for general online content. Below 50 is 'difficult' — fine for academic papers, but not for product pages or help docs.
- Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: aim for grade 8 or below (roughly age 13–14). Most web content sits between grades 6 and 8. Grade 12+ is college-level and loses a large chunk of your audience.
- Average sentence length: 15–20 words. If your average is above 25, you have sentences that need splitting.
- Average syllables per word: 1.4–1.6 is the sweet spot. Above 1.8 means you're using too many long words.
A real editing workflow
- Paste your draft into a readability tool and note the scores. Don't fix anything yet — just get the baseline.
- Find the longest sentences first. Split each one at a conjunction ('and', 'but', 'because') or a comma that introduces a new idea. Two short sentences beat one long one.
- Replace long words with short ones where the meaning doesn't change. 'Demonstrate' → 'show'. 'Facilitate' → 'help'. 'Subsequently' → 'then'.
- Cut filler phrases. 'In order to' → 'to'. 'It is important to note that' → delete entirely. 'At this point in time' → 'now'.
- Re-check the scores. If they improved, stop. Don't over-optimize — a score of 80 when you started at 55 is a win; pushing to 90 might flatten your voice.
The Hemingway principle
Ernest Hemingway's style is extreme — almost no words over two syllables, almost no sentences over fifteen words. You don't need to write like Hemingway, but his constraint is a useful editing tool: try rewriting your most complex paragraph in his style, then relax the constraint where it damages the meaning.
When complexity is correct
Technical, medical, and legal writing needs its own vocabulary. You can't explain a cardiac arrhythmia without the word 'arrhythmia', and you can't describe a REST API without 'endpoint' and 'payload'. The readability score will drop, and that's fine — the audience for those documents expects technical language. The rule is: use the simplest word that's precise, not the simplest word that exists.
Readability scores don't measure quality
A perfectly clear, important paragraph can score poorly because it uses necessary technical terms. A shallow, fluffy paragraph can score well because it uses short, simple words. Use the score as a diagnostic, not a verdict.
Analyze your text complexity
Writing Studio calculates Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Gunning Fog, Coleman-Liau, and more — with live highlighting of long sentences and complex words as you type.
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