Linsear Write

Linsear Write is a readability metric for English text, purportedly developed for the United States Air Force to help them calculate the readability of their technical manuals.[1] It is one of many such readability metrics, but is specifically designed to calculate the United States grade level of a text sample based on sentence length and the number of words used that have three or more syllables.[2] It is similar to the Fry readability formula.

## Algorithm

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The standard Linsear Write metric Lw runs on a 100-word sample:[3]

1. For each "easy word", defined as words with 2 syllables or less, add 1 point.
2. For each "hard word", defined as words with 3 syllables or more, add 3 points.
3. Divide the points by the number of sentences in the 100-word sample.
4. Adjust the provisional result r:
* If r > 20, Lw = r / 2.
* If r ≤ 20, Lw = r / 2 - 1.

The result is a "grade level" measure, reflecting the estimated years of education needed to read the text fluently.

## History

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The idea behind the metric goes back to government employee John O'Hayre's 1966 manual, titled Gobbledygook Has Gotta Go. In his style manual, O'Hayre proposed a metric that considers shorter sentences and shorter words easier to read: in a 100-word sample, each one-syllable word (with the exception of some stop words) is worth one point, and each sentence (semicolon or period) is worth 3 points. The higher the score, the better.[4] At some later point in time the metric was developed into a full Linsear Write Index.[5]

## External links

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* koRpus, a package for R, the Linsear Write formula is included in its functions readability() and readability.num().
* textstat, a Python module that has a Linsear Write method to calculate the grade level for text. An example: textstat.textstat.textstat.linsear_write_formula(text)

## References

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1. ^ Arkansas Bar Association | What's New Archived 2008-01-11 at the Wayback Machine
2. ^ Linsear Write Readability Formula Archived 2008-03-24 at the Wayback Machine
3. ^ Readability Helps The Level
4. ^ O'Hayre, John. "Gobbledygook Has Gotta Go" (PDF). governmentattic.org.
5. ^ Klare, George R. (1974). "Assessing Readability". Reading Research Quarterly. 10 (1): 74. doi:10.2307/747086.

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Readability tests for English

Tests and formulas that measure the readability of a text

* Automated readability index (1967)
* ATOS
* Coleman–Liau index (1975)
* Dale–Chall readability formula (1948)
* Flesch–Kincaid readability tests
* Flesch reading ease [1975]
* Flesch–Kincaid grade level [1975]
* FORCAST (1973)
* Fry readability formula (1968)
* Gunning fog index (1952)
* Lexile (1989)
* Linsear Write
* Raygor readability estimate (1977)
* SMOG (1969)
* Spache readability formula (1952)

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