Readability tests like the cloze procedure, Fog index, Flesch formula, and Smog are procedures to determine the reading ease of a piece of written material. It is done before materials are pretested with the target audience. Print materials with lower reading levels are easier to understand and remember even for highly literate audiences.

Readability tests are largely based on number of words, number of sentences or even number of polysyllables. These tests teach us a simple rule in readability — that when writing a piece of material, if we use shorter words (versus words with 3 syllables or more) and shorter sentences, chances are, our writing will be easier to understand by the average reader. The heuristic then is to simplify. See, I just used a 3-syllable word (heuristic) to mean “simple rule”. Strange how people tend to prefer to use complicated words to simpler words although it limits understanding the material they have written.

The Fog index is one method of analyzing written material to see how easy it is to read and understand. The resulting number indicates the number of years of formal education that a person requires in order to easily understand the text on the first reading.

Another psychological tool for measuring the effectiveness of communication is the cloze procedure. When first introduced, it was regarded mainly as a “new and better” way of determining the readability of printed English prose.

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