Skills development

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Skills development

• Using Words grammar checker to determine if
  writing is at an appropriate reading level for
  intended audience

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Words grammar checker performs several functions

• Checks spelling
• Checks grammar
• Checks for some formatting errors, such as extra
  spaces
• Performs a readability check

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What is readability?

• A statistic that lets you know what grade level
  you are writing at
• Helps you determine if you are writing at the
  level of your intended audience
• The function does not operate by default in
  Wordyou must turn it on

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How do I enable the readability feature?

• Open Word
• At the toolbar, go to TOOLS, down to OPTIONS
• Select the GRAMMAR and SPELLING tab
• Check the box SHOW READABILITY STATISTICS

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Make sure the box SHOW READABILITY STATS is
checked
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Test it

• Open up a document in Word
• Run the grammar check on the writing
• When the checker is done, Word displays the
  readability statistic

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How do I interpret the readability statistic?

• Flesch Kincaid score gives U.S. grade school
  reading level of the document
• 10-12 (twelfth grade) is appropriate for most
  academic writing
• Aim for 8-10 for most business writing
• Aim for 6-8 for general audiences

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How can I change my writing to meet my readers
level?

• Adjust sentence length
• Adjust word length

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Some final advice about using a grammar checker

• Never turn off your grammar checker because it is
  distracting
• Dont change a sentence if you doubt Words
  recommendation
• Print your work, highlight problems and discuss
  them with your instructor
• Never trust the grammar checker to find all your
  errorsuse a human proofreader too!