Readability checker
Paste your text. The readability table updates as you type; press Analyse text to underline passive voice, weak adverbs, wordy phrases and cliches.
How to use it
- Paste your text.
- Read the table: reading ease, grade level, average sentence length, long sentences and hard words.
- Press Analyse text to underline passive voice, weak adverbs, wordy phrases and cliches.
- Shorten the sentences over 25 words and swap hard words for plain ones, then check again.
How it works
Flesch reading ease scores a text from 0 to 100; most web writing should land between 60 and 80. The Flesch-Kincaid grade turns the same counts into a US school grade. The style marks come from the open-source write-good rules.
Questions
What score should I aim for?
For a general audience, a reading ease of 60 or higher and a grade of 8 or lower. Newspapers sit around grade 8 to 10; academic writing is often grade 12 and above.
Is passive voice always wrong?
No. It is flagged so you can decide. "The bill was passed" is fine when the actor does not matter; "mistakes were made" hides who made them.
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Your text stays in your browser unless you save it to your account; the grammar check sends the text to the open-source LanguageTool service and nothing is kept there. Word data comes from Datamuse and the Free Dictionary API. Built and maintained by Wordhurst.