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In response to Mike Uhl's question, and as several people will probably have
already noted by the time this gets posted, Microsoft Word 6 (both Windows
and Macintosh versions) computes the Flesch Reading Ease Index and
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level as part of its grammar checker. (It also
calculates several other readability indexes.)
I've found this feature much more helpful than the other functions performed
by the Word grammar checker, which seems to fabricate more grammatical and
usage errors than it correctly identifies. I'm not a firm believer in the
accuracy of these readability scores, but they do help me be more aware of
the relative complexity of my prose, especially when writing for children or
for those whose reading skills are not highly developed.
--George Hayhoe (GFHayhoe -at- aol -dot- com)
Assistant to the President for Competitions, STC
