How to Find Your Document's Readability Score in Microsoft Word

Is your writing smarter than a fifth grader's? Your report, manual, or any other kind of document should match the reading level of your intended audience. You don't want to compose an article for graduate students that is written at an elementary school level. In a couple of clicks, you can find the readability score in Microsoft Word  and make sure the reading level is on point.

Microsoft Word can display the readability score for both the Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaide Grade Level formulas, two of the most commonly used and accurate measures of readability. The higher the Flesch Reading Ease score, the easier it is for most people to understand the document. The Flesch-Kincaide Grade Level score represents the number of years of education generally required to understand the text.

To quickly see the reading level of your Word document or selection of text:

1. Go to File > Options.

2. In the Proofing tab, check the following options:

  • Check grammar with spelling
  • Show readability statistics

3. Click OK.

4. Click to Review > Spelling & Grammar to check your document for spelling or grammatical errors and also see the readability level of your document.

With these settings changes, you'll see more readability statistics for your Word document every time you check the document's spelling and grammar.

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