What Is the Fry Readability Calculator?
The calculator computes the Fry readability score of a text. It returns a grade level for the text based on the average sentence length and syllable count.
How to Use the Fry Readability Calculator
Type or paste your text into the box to get the reading level and other statistics on the fly.
This calculator works best with texts of at least 300 words.
- If your text is under 100 words, the calculator will use all your words.
- If it's between 100-300 words, the calculator will try to take three samples, dividing into three equal samples.
- If it's over 300 words, it will take 100-word samples from the beginning, middle, and end.
What Is the Fry Readability Formula?
The Fry readability formula is a metric developed by Edward Fry in 1968 to assess the readability of a text. Like other readability formulas, it determines how easy or difficult a passage is to understand.
To use the Fry formula manually:
- Make sure your text is spell-checked and properly punctuated. A clean, properly formatted and grammatically correct text will get the best results.
- Select three 100-word passages from near the beginning, middle, and end of your text.
- Count the number of sentences in each passage (estimating to the nearest tenth for partial sentences).
- Count the total number of syllables in each passage.
- Calculate the average number of sentences and syllables per 100 words across the three samples. The result is the estimation of grade level.
What Is a Good Fry Readability Score?
A good Fry readability score depends on your target audience.
- For general adult readers, aim for grades 6-8.
- For academic or professional texts, higher grade levels will be normal.
- For children's literature, target a lower reading level suitable for the intended age group.
Why You Should Use the Fry Readability Calculator
The Fry formula can tell you the grade level your audience needs in order to understand your text. This can help improve the clarity of your writing.
In healthcare, the Fry calculator helps ensure that patient education materials are clear and simple, which is critical for patient understanding. The Fry formula is also important in law, for example to create insurance policies that are easy to understand for a wide audience.
Related Tools
- Flesch Reading Ease: Measure readability using the Flesch-Kincaid formula based on sentence length and syllable count.
- Dale-Chall Readability: Check readability using the Dale-Chall formula based on a list of familiar words.