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Also known as: Coleman-Liau, Coleman-Liau grade,
Coleman-Liau grade level, Coleman-Liau grade level score,
Coleman-Liau
readability score, Coleman grade level score, Coleman score, Liau reading
score, Liau grade level, Coleman-Liau reading level,
or Coleman-Liau score.
The Coleman-Liau Grade Level readability score score gauges the understandability of a text. The formula uses word length in characters and sentence length in words to determine a score corresponding to the estimated grade level or grade level score.
Also known as: Coleman-Liau readability, Coleman-Liau reading assessment, Coleman-Liau readability assessment, Coleman-Liau equation, Coleman-Liau reading, Coleman-Liau reading ease, Coleman-Liau readability test, or Coleman-Liau scale.
The formula for the Coleman-Liau Grade Level score is:
CLGL =
(5.89 x (AWL / ASL))
- (30 x ANS / ASL)
- 15.8
where:
CLGL : Coleman-Liau grade level score AWL : average word length or number of characters per word (number of characters divided by the number of words) ASL : average sentence length in words or average number of words in sentence (number of words divided by the number of sentences) ANS : average number of sentences
Common misspellings: coelman-liau, coldman-liau,
coleman-laiu,
cloeman-liau, colman-liau, coleman-laiu,
coleman liua, coleman-lau, coleman-liu, or coleman-ilau.
The Coleman-Liau readability score is part of the best-known readability scores, amongst other indicators measuring how easily an adult can read and understand a text. Readability statistics are good predictors of the level of difficulty of documents, particularly technical ones. They present different readability scores that are computed using readability formulas. Other readability statistics most commonly used are:
Microsoft Word (MS Word), as a powerful word processor, provide you with a built-in tool to display the score list, amongst other readability statistics, but, unfortunately, not Coleman-Liau readability score:
Be aware that MS Word displays such scores for text in the last language that was checked, likely in the last processed paragraph.
Although MS Word doesn't provide the Coleman-Liau Readability level per se, it's still possible to compute it from the statistics handy, namely the average number of words, characters, and sentences displayed in the statistics list and programmatically available from the built-in document statistics object in MS Word.
Coleman-Liau Reading Ease Score Macro Source Code:
|
''''''''''''''''''''''''''' ' Implement your own readability scores, including ' the Coleman-Liau score, by using the built-in ' readability scores object provided by Microsoft Word ' Macro written using Visual Basic (VB) Editor ''''''''''''''''''''''''''' Sub Display_Readability_Scores_Marco() ' Start of the readability statistics marco Dim Stats As String Dim Words As String Dim Characters As String Dim Paragraphs As String Dim Sentences As String Dim Sentences_per_paragraph As String Dim Words_per_sentence As String Dim Characters_per_word As String Dim Ratio_of_passive_sentences As String Dim Flesch_Reading_Ease_score As String Dim Flesch_Kincaid_Grade_Level_score As String Dim Coleman_Liau_Readability_Score As String ' There are 10 statistical parameters ' Get their value from the built-in statistics object Words = ActiveDocument.Content.ReadabilityStatistics(1).Value Characters = ActiveDocument.Content.ReadabilityStatistics(2).Value Paragraphs = ActiveDocument.Content.ReadabilityStatistics(3).Value Sentences = ActiveDocument.Content.ReadabilityStatistics(4).Value Sentences_per_paragraph = ActiveDocument.Content.ReadabilityStatistics(5).Value Words_per_sentence = ActiveDocument.Content.ReadabilityStatistics(6).Value Characters_per_word = ActiveDocument.Content.ReadabilityStatistics(7).Value Ratio_of_passive_sentences = ActiveDocument.Content.ReadabilityStatistics(8).Value Flesch_Reading_Ease_score = ActiveDocument.Content.ReadabilityStatistics(9).Value Flesch_Kincaid_Grade_Level_score = ActiveDocument.Content.ReadabilityStatistics(10).Value ' Compute Coleman-Liau score Coleman_Liau_Readability_Score = Int((5.89*Characters/Words)-(30*Sentences/Words)-15.8) Stats = "BASIC COUNTERS" & vbCrLf & _ "" & vbCrLf & _ "Characters" & vbTab & vbTab & " : " & Characters & vbCrLf & _ "Words" & vbTab & vbTab & vbTab & " : " & Words & vbCrLf & _ "Sentences" & vbTab & vbTab & " : " & Sentences & vbCrLf & _ "Paragraphs" & vbTab & vbTab & " : " & Paragraphs & vbCrLf & __ "" & vbCrLf & _ "RATIOS" & vbCrLf & _ "" & vbCrLf & _ "Characters per word" & vbTab & " : " & Characters_per_word & vbCrLf & _ "Words per sentence" & vbTab & " : " & Words_per_sentence & vbCrLf & _ "Sentences per paragraph" & vbTab & " : " & Sentences_per_paragraph & vbCrLf & _ "" & vbCrLf & _ "READABILITY SCORES" & vbCrLf & _ "" & vbCrLf & _ "Passive Sentences" & vbTab & vbTab & " : " & Ratio_of_passive_sentences & vbCrLf & _ "Flesch Reading Ease" & vbTab & " : " & Flesch_Reading_Ease_score & vbCrLf & _ "Flesch Kincaid Grade Level" & vbTab & " : " & Flesch_Kincaid_Grade_Level_score & vbCrLf & _ "Coleman-Liau readability" & vbTab & " : " & Coleman_Liau_Readability_Score & vbCrLf ' Display all readability scores parameters MsgBox Stats, vbOKOnly, "Readability Statistics" ' End of the readability statistics macro End Sub ' Sub Display_Readability_Scores_Marco() |
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by Project on Government Oversight (POGO)

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Last Modified: Thursday, June 03, 2010 12:15:14 PM
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