Readability...

Joe Carter, at Evangelical Outpost, blogged about the readability of his blog. It got me thinking, and I decided to see how mine measures up.

http://www.juicystudio.com/fog/index.asp

Readability Results for http://mrclm.blogspot.com
Readability ResultsSummary Value
Total sentences 521
Total words 7,100
Average words per Sentence 13.63
Words with 1 Syllable 4,842
Words with 2 Syllables 1,289
Words with 3 Syllables 639
Words with 4 or more Syllables 330
Percentage of word with three or more syllables 13.65%
Average Syllables per Word 1.50
Gunning Fog Index 10.91
Flesch Reading Ease 66.02
Flesch-Kincaid Grade 7.44

So according to this, my blog reads a bit harder than his does. I suspect that is because I have a number of articles posted in my blog, articles written by smart people who use big words.


Typical Fog Index Scores
Fog Index Resources
6 TV guides, The Bible, Mark Twain
8 Reader's Digest
8 - 10 Most popular novels
10 Time, Newsweek
11 Wall Street Journal
14 The Times, The Guardian
15 - 20 Academic papers
Over 20 Only government sites can get away with this, because you can't ignore them.
Over 30 The government is covering something up

So right now I rank as more difficult to read than Newsweek and Time. I wouldn't consider either of those difficult to read, though the WSJ can give headaches because of the subject matter more than the writing.

I was curious about how this plays out on other things, so I randomly chose 3 sermons by John Piper from desiringgod.org and was surprized to find out that the highest score was just below 8, and the lowest score just above 6. I had expected to find his writing (even in his sermons) to be pretty high reading level stuff. Perhaps I'm confusing his ability to make me think about difficult things with his use of words. I suppose I am inclined to think something is more complex if it requires more thought/discomfort/difficulty on my part.

I am in the middle of a study break from school. We get two weeks in the middle of each semester where we scramble to catch up on all we are behind on, and work ahead if possible. Over the next 6 days I really need to work out one full sermon (Genesis 9), the better part of a second sermon (Genesis3?), refine and think about a third sermon to be preached the end of the month from Ephesians 2:1-10. I also need to review and study Greek, and read a book on reserve at the library. Add to that working 5 days at the Lobster, church meetings this morning and Tuesday morning, J-hi youth group Wednesday night, and a date with my beloved Banana on Friday, and I don't feel as if I'm getting much "break" from the study break. There is light at the end of the tunnel though, as the semester is half over as of today. I'm sure someday I'm going to miss being in school...

In spite of the above, I do feel enormously blessed by God, and feel that this is where He wants me for this season of life. It's funny how we can be where we believe God wants us, but nonetheless still be anxiously looking forward to the next stage. I suppose there is a lesson in there for me to learn to live in the moment, but I'm just too impatient :-) The old "hurry up God and bless me with patience" trap. Life is good. Praise God. Praise God, even when life isn't good.

I also need to quit blogging so late at night. I think my thinking skills decrease this time of night, but my creativity increases. Sometimes that is good, sometimes that is not so good.