Today, we are going to assess our READABILITY, which means the personal grade level we are writing at. We are going to do this by means of a formula developed by Edward Fry: the so-called "Fry graph."
What we need:
Take three different blog entries you have made for this class on our class blog. Copy them into a blank Word document. They can be from the beginning of the semester or the end; it does not matter.
TASK 1:
Now, cut down each of these three 100-words samples down to EXACTLY 100 words. You can use the word count of Microsoft Word by pasting your blog comment into a Word document, or you can copy and paste it into the word count tool. Simply delete all the words over 100, even if you have to stop in the middle of a sentence.
1) Count the number of sentences in your 100 words sample. (If you had less than 100 words, add more. If you had more, just stop after having counted up to 100, and delete the rest.) Estimate the length of your last sentence, even if incomplete, to the nearest 1/10.
2) Count the number of syllables in your 100 words sample.
3) Make a table as seen in these INSTRUCTIONS. Draw this table on the handout I give you, because you will receive points for it, and I will collect it at the end of today's lesson!
4) Do the same for your second and third 100-words sample.
5) Total your numbers, and average them. (A little bit of math ;-)). You can use the Microsoft calculator ;-)
7) Make a dot on the FRY GRAPH I distributed in class where your personal readability lies. Write your name on the handout with your graph and your table, and submit it to your teacher for grading (I'm not grading the height of your readability, only the fact that you participated and understood the procedure!) There are no make-ups for this assignment.
HOMEWORK for Wednesday:
Post a comment to this blog (100-250 words) about what you think about your personal readability level. Do you believe the Fry graph correctly displays the grade level you're writing at? Why, or why not? What could be missing? What could the readability level be used for? Will knowing your personal readability level change anything about your future writing? Do you think you have a different readability level when you blog than when you write a research article like you did for this class?
I believe that the Fry graph could be a reasonable display of what grade level I write at, but only for the text that I submitted. If I used a research paper to see what grade level I was writing at, I think that it would be higher. However, a blog posting should be written at a lower grade level to make sure that everyone can understand what the author is writing. But for other types of writing, such as book reports or research articles, an author will use more scientific or more intelligent words in their text.
ReplyDeleteI write at a pretty low grade (6) on the blog. I guess it is accurate, I'm not much of a writer, and I tend to write how I would speak, so it's not surprising. It seems I write on the blog in a way that everyone can understand which is good. When I write a research article, I try to write better, and sound more intelligent, but I'm sure my blog writing is pretty close to the way I would write a paper. Some people could score a low grade on the readability, but still not use words correctly, or go in circles, making it harder to read. Well I read in the instructions that they use this test to make sure that patients can follow instructions by doctors, or on pill bottles. This test could be used for anything that is meant to be read by the public.
ReplyDeleteThe Fry Graph probably displays the grade level at which we write for the blog comments. I know that I do not write to my full extent when simply commenting or posting to the blog, especially because peers will be reading it more so than academicians, so it is safe to say that others would not write to their full extent, either. For my research paper, I would believe that I have a higher readability level than for comments I have posted. I will probably think about this level often in the future when I am writing because it is interesting, and I would like to be higher than where I was placed today. In more serious circumstances, the readability level could be used for assessing students who have surpassed or not yet reached the level of those in their grade to help place them in a more suited environment.
ReplyDeleteI was about an 8th grade readability level. I don't believe that the Fry graph correctly displays the grade level that I should be at. First of all, I have a much different readability level in something more important such as a research article or essay that I would do. Also, it was difficult to copy and paste sentences and chop words to find exactly 100 words. I think that brought my readability down a lot.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is a very suprisingly activity. I would have never guessed that I read at a 7th grade level. I don't think that this is a good way to calculate this information however. It's not accurate because my sentence could have been very complex but that means nothing from the way we are calculating the information. If someone wanted to actually come up with a way to judge someones reading level, I believe that they should actually read a sample, and not use a computer generated activity.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Fry Graph test, my writing is at a 12th grade level however, I don’t feel like this test is an accurate portrayal of my abilities as writer. The Fry Graph only examines the number of syllables per sentence and it ignores a lot of the subtle nuances of well developed writing, such as word choice and style. Regardless of the Fry Graph results I am quite confident that my writing is well above a 12th grade level and is more than sufficient for college level academic writing, and I doubt anything about my writing will change.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that the Fry graph accurately depicts my reading level. I feel that I have I am an above average reader and that should result in a higher writing level than I got from the graph. The readability level should be solely based on the speed at which one reads, not based on how well they write. I don't think that knowing my readability level will have any affect on my future writing because I have written like I am now for years and I don't think that I will change it. Yes because writing a research paper is much more in depth than blogging among your peers.
ReplyDeleteBy: Alex Bassett
I think Fry's graph was an accurate grading scale. I believe I am at a lower writing level than most students my age. It is a good tool to use when posting something that people are going to read. Writing over someones head is very frustrating for the user, but using this tool will let the author know to tone his writing down or pick it up.
ReplyDeleteI have received a level of readability equivalent to that of a ninth grader. I do not know if this reflects a correct level of readability or not as I have no frame of reference to test this against. If anything is missing it cold be a "flow" factor, or an "ease of reading" factor.
ReplyDeleteThe readability level could be used as a standard for setting goals or a new prerequisite for papers, and/or research in order to essentially, dumb them down or sine and polish them.
I may have a different readability level when I write or convey concepts not in a blog, I am not sure.
According to the Fry graph, my personal readability level was average. I do not agree that Fry's method acuratly estimates writing capabilities or readabiliity level. I know for a fact that I am a terrible slow reader. I am however decent with writing papers. I believe i learned lots from English courses over time and continue to excell in my writing capabilities. I do agree that I have a different readability leven when writing on blogs compared to when I write papers.
ReplyDelete~~~~By Kyle Doran
I don't think that Fry's graph is very accurate. I scored extremely low on the charts. I know that I did not write to my best ability on the blog posts. My writing on the blogs, and my writing when it comes to papers are completely different. I know that my reading and writing skills are very different. I am a terrible reader, but I am decent when it comes to writing papers.
ReplyDeleteScott Carpenter
I would have to say that this graph does seem to be pretty accurate. It said that I wrote somewhere between a seventh and eighth grade level and that seems pretty write to me. I doubt that now knowing this will really affect my writing at all. I have never been a strong writer and I probably never will. But, I definitely do not believe that I write as well on the blogs as I do on papers but I still feel like I would not score that high, my writing has never been what you would call "academic".
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with most people and say that I do not believe the Fry graph is a very accurate summary of my readability level. Since we were using short posted comments as our word documents, I believe that there was an unfair amount of sentences tested. The blog posts to me are important, however they seem to be for informal. This would result in a poor readability level. I know that for an academic paper or any other formal work, I would have my very best at work and my readability level would increase greatly. Overall, the idea of the Fry Graph is good, however it should not test all texts considering many are not at top quality.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Fry graph I have the readability level of a 7'th grader. Based on my age and amount of time I have been in school I do not believe that these results are very accurate. As well, there is some room for error in this process of ranking. Since these tests were based on comments from the blog and only involved checking for number of sentences, syllables, and word count, the results may only be partial. As well, when writing a paper I focus heavily on grammar and writing thorough sentences. However, in blogs I do not concentrate on my writing so much because responses are short and personal opinion. Perhaps this test is used to check a students basic skills in writing if unknown, or to help a teacher find just what level a student is at as an approximation.
ReplyDeleteAccording, to the Fry graph I have a writing level of 6-7. Sometimes I could see that the Fry graph could be wrong and write. I say this because it doesn't see how you are writing or the content in the writing itself. All that it does count how many syllables and how many lines that you have. Therefore, it is correct from that part of the writing but from the other part it doesn't. The readability could be used for many things, newspapers for one, write their news at a level 8 that away everyone can be able to read the newspaper and understand it. I believe that as I get older, that my readability level will go up because I will go through more training on how to write correct and how to have correct grammar. When blogging I try to write at the same level that I do whenever I am writing a research paper or any kind of paper. Sometimes I think I do and other times I don't because it doesn't seem to be as formal as the other writings that I have done.
ReplyDeleteCameron Krones
I believe that the fry graph gave an accurate representation for my personal writing in a blog setting. However I feel that when writing a paper for a class, such as the research paper, my writing readability would be much higher than what the graph showed. The fry graph seems to be very accurate to me getting most of its information from sentence length and syllable count. This shows that students in higher levels of learning use shorter sentence and larger words with more syllables, while the younger writers use small one word syllables and tend to have very long sentences.
ReplyDelete