Comments on: How to Objectively Measure Text Readability (and Lower Your Graph’s Reading Level)

By: Ann K. Emery

Ann K. Emery — Tue, 19 Jun 2018 21:28:34 +0000

Update: Readable’s website is getting a facelift, so you might run into some wonky issues. In the meantime, I’ve been using https://datayze.com/readability-analyzer.php to measure reading levels. It’s not as pretty or comprehensive as Readable, but it gets the job done! As usual, I’m personally focusing on transforming my long sentences into several shorter sentences. I just transformed a draft from a grade level 9 into a grade level 6 by shortening my sentences. Enjoy this additional tool!

By: Ann K. Emery

Ann K. Emery — Tue, 19 Jun 2018 21:26:40 +0000

In reply to Robin.

Hi Robin,
Good question.
I don’t suggest using headlines in live presentations. Your audience would be reading the headline at the same time that you’re speaking. So you’d lose your audience–for up to 6 seconds with the original long title.
I definitely use headlines in written documents, like reports, executive summaries, policy briefs, dashboards, and infographics (basically, for everything except slideshows). In those situations, you’re not physically present to talk about the message–yes, that there was a spike and now it’s dropped down–so your text does the “talking” for you.
Hope this helps!
Ann

By: Robin

Robin — Thu, 14 Jun 2018 23:17:21 +0000

It is still not entirely clear what the takeaway message of this graph should be. Is the point to show that the huge spike that happened in the early 90s has now dropped down almost to baseline levels due to some unspecified reason? I thought the data viz checklist you and Stephanie Evergreen created encourages the use of a headline in sentence format which tells viewers the point of the visualization.