Before you ever send a news
release to a media outlet, know what its average Flesch score is. If
your subject is a complicated one, you need to be sure that they
will be able to write about at their normal level. How do you that?
You give it to them above their normal
level.
| Harvard Law Review |
25 |
Written by brainiacs, for brainiacs |
| Time Magazine |
47 |
Hard for more than half the potential readers
|
| Typical daily newspaper |
50 |
Seattle Times average |
| New York Times |
52 |
Easier to read and understand than Time magazine |
| Fortune magazine |
53 |
Written at high school, not college level |
| Wall Street Journal |
57 |
Easier to read than the NY Times! |
| Barron's |
65 |
Financial news made easy |
| Reader's Digest |
65 |
Simple info-nugget approach |
| American Banker |
60 |
Good for someone in about 11th grade |
| Information Week |
59 |
Tech trade skimps on big words |
| Wireless Week |
55 |
Despite content, easy to read |
| Builder |
62 |
Easy to read |
| Vineyard & Winery
Management |
61 |
A toast to simple reading |
|
| JFK's "Ask not. . ." speech |
60 |
Yes, but the famous "Ask not. . ." quote scores a Flesch
100 |
| Lincoln's Gettysburg
Address |
64 |
Speech was only 268 words. The other speaker that day
droned on for 3,500. No one recalls anything he said. |
| MLK's "I have a dream. . ."
speech |
66 |
Speech inspired a generation of African-Americans. |
| Obama's inaugural speech |
73 |
Shows that smart people can look that way just by using
words that are simple and mostly just one syllable. |
| Top 10 fiction books |
83 |
James V. Smith Jr.'s research revealed that the books
that sold the most to adults were written at a 4th grade
level. |
