I found this interesting website that assesses the reading level required to understand your website’s content.
So, I entered my Sexy Spanish Club in Buenos Aires blog at http://www.SexySpanishClub.blogspot.com and it turns out that it’s written for the junior high level. Hmmm. Well, it’s pretty casual. It’s not about education–it’s about living a creative life here in Argentina. So, I’m okay with that.
Then I entered my mindfulness blog at http://www.MassageYourMind.wordpress.com and it also got a junior high rating. Well, I make a point of speaking simply because my premise is that mindfulness isn’t a difficult concept and that ANYONE can learn how to pay attention in simple, enjoyable ways. So, that makes sense, too.
And then I entered this blog. The rating? Well, according to the site, you have to be a GENIUS to understand this blog you’re reading.
Oh, come on. A GENIUS? Either the standards for genius are pretty low or I’ve somehow stuck in a few hoity-toity words that only the most brilliant readers will understand.
I’m trying to keep this information accessible and relevant to students, parents, teachers, and school administrators. I don’t think there’s anything here that’s too academic, and if this blog is rated at the genius level, I wonder what some of the headier blogs I read are rated?
I mean, is there a level ABOVE genius?
One of the smartest blogs I read is Richard Florida’s Creative Class Exchange at http://www.creativeclass.com. His ranked at the high school level.
Then I checked my colleague Matthew K. Tabor’s site at http://www.MatthewKTabor.com His is at the high school level, too.
I entered Eduwonk’s site (”Education News, Analysis and Commentary”) at http://www.eduwonk.com and that came in at the junior high school level!
What gives? How come mine is so, um, brainy?
Where does your blog rank? Check it out for yourself and post a comment below!
7 Comments
January 15, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Thanks for the link. Unfortunately I got the statement, “We were unable to check the URL you entered.” Oh, well, life moves on. Enjoy the adventure you’re having. I’ll let some friends in my writer’s club know about your success with Random House.
Ron
January 15, 2008 at 9:08 pm
I’m puzzled by these rankings – the last wave showed a handful of challenging blogs at the middle school level and a few of the simplest at college. I couldn’t make much sense of it.
One of the best features of the old WordPerfect program I had was the battery of writing tests [Flesch-Kincaid and several others]. I made plenty of use of that feature – knowing basic stats like average words in a sentence, words/sentences in a paragraph, etc. helped me look at my writing and decide which elements I wanted to keep.
The thing that resonates with me – regarding blogs, especially – is word choice, something that none of these tests can address. This blog and other favorites always use the right word instead of approximately the right word or worse. To me, that’s what makes or breaks writing.
January 15, 2008 at 9:39 pm
This is an excellent blog and shows your love for mankind. Your offspring have sprung , yet you continue to display altruism in the giving and sharing of your knowledge.
Thank you again and let me know if I can be of help from Houston.
Sincerely
doc Pete
March 30, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Hi!
I just discovered your blog and this entry in particular after having written a piece with a similar theme on my blog. Readability indices are just so cool aren’t they?
. I’d like to suggest the following article if I may (http://plainlanguage.com/newreadability.html), whose author has done a remarkable job in not only explaining the utility of these scores (especially when it comes to educators) but some of their limitations as well.
Great work with the blog and happy surfing!
March 31, 2008 at 3:31 pm
I’ve done the same and the results were somehow questionable. This is my post about it: http://iwka.wordpress.com/2008/03/30/blog-readability-test/
There is a link on this post to a much better “checking readability” tool.
Iwona
March 31, 2008 at 3:38 pm
I just noticed that I forgot to mention where you could find my blog as well
. Just point your browser to http://mydominanthemisphere.wordpress.com 
and should you wish, please do leave behind any suggestions or comments there. Thanks!
December 21, 2008 at 9:56 pm
[...] reading tests and check my grade level. I was so happy one day when I registered 8th grade. But Now Maya Frost has run this blog through something called “the blog readability test” and found that I [...]