How readable is this dreck?

On a blog I read occasionally, the blogger found a website to test the readability of a website. Naturally, I was curious about my writing. Here are the results:

Readability Results
The following table contains the readability results for http://mossagate.blogspot.com/ .

Reading Level Results Summary Value
Total sentences 640
Total words 2204
Average words per Sentence 3.44
Words with 1 Syllable 1170
Words with 2 Syllables 411
Words with 3 Syllables 223
Words with 4 or more Syllables 400
Percentage of word with three or more syllables 28.27%
Average Syllables per Word 1.93
Gunning Fog Index 12.68
Flesch Reading Ease 39.78
Flesch-Kincaid Grade 8.57

Gunning-Fog Index
The following is the algorithm to determine the Gunning-Fog index.

Calculate the average number of words you use per sentence.
Calculate the percentage of difficult words in the sample (words with three or more syllables).
Add the totals together, and multiply the sum by 0.4.
Algorithm: (average_words_sentence + number_words_three_syllables_plus) * 0.4
The result is your Gunning-Fog index, which is a rough measure of how many years of schooling it would take someone to understand the content. The lower the number, the more understandable the content will be to your visitors. Results over seventeen are reported as seventeen, where seventeen is considered post-graduate level.

Typical Fog Index Scores Fog Index Resources
6 TV guides, The Bible, Mark Twain
8 Reader's Digest
8 - 10 Most popular novels
10 Time, Newsweek
11 Wall Street Journal
14 The Times, The Guardian
15 - 20 Academic papers
Over 20 Only government sites can get away with this, because you can't ignore them.
Over 30 The government is covering something up

What I find quite odd is that I am as inclined to use FOUR syllable words as I am to use TWO. Guess that law school education is paying off!

Here's the link to test a website: http://juicystudio.com/services/readability.php#readweb

The Valentine Pie

Commissioned by a friend for her husband. Reportedly, he enjoyed it.

Romance and Robert Burns

This weekend's tag challenge at "Tag, You're It" was romance. I just got a new stamp set from Stampin' Up called "5th Ave. Floral" with a lovely rose stamp. From there, the leap to Robert Burns was easy.

Here's the first try. I colored the rose with watercolor markers and a blending pen. The reddest pen is rendered rather more pink. The first stanza of the familiar poem is printed from my computer. The rose is covered with clear Copic Spica; as I always say, the sparkle is never picked up by a scan.

The next one used the same elements, just assembled in a different order.


I couldn't finish without producing at least ONE "red, red rose," so stamped on solid red and assembled with a tiny bit of ribbon:

Just a Note

Weekend Taggers challenge this week was a specific pattern. I complied, except I left off a horizontal line at the top, for lack of room:

I can't recall the stamp companies, and I am too lazy to run downstairs and look.
This was actually the last in a series of tags that began orange and blue. This was the last tag in that series, and the only one worth seeing:

These stamps are all Stampin'Up.

Plum Crazy

I got a little carried away with the Weekend Taggers Purple challenge. Still in a Valentine mode, I made the first tag:

The wreath and sentiment are from a Hero Arts clear set. I stamped with Colorbox Chalk ink, and added little plastic flowers with brad centers from Queen & Co. The background is lightly figured with swirls, from Crate Paper.

I wasn't totally happy with this tag, and remembered my Sizzix posey die. I dug up three shades of purple and cut the flower set out three times. I assembled a flower, and free-handed some leaves, and made my first posy tag:

The sentiment is Hero Arts; background paper is Lasting Memories. I used the last bit of the ribbon from the first tag.



I still had two more flowers to assemble and use. Here, with a Stampin'Up sentiment:


The last tag is my favorite. Sentiment is from Memory Box.

I love the bold graphic quality of this tag, probably because I didn't use the printed paper background. All these tags will eventually end up on cards, most likely. That's one reason I love these challenges -- I end up creating elements for use in cards, for those times when I've got no card mojo.