Using MS Word Readability to Improve Your Student’s Writing

From Umm…Studying, What’s That?

The readability level of a piece of writing is dependent on the types of words and sentences used.  Using words with more syllables and more complex sentences produces a higher readability level. If students know what the readability level of their writing is, they can challenge themselves to bring it up higher! All they have to do is use words with more syllables and write longer sentences that are more complex and then spell check again to see if their reading level is higher!

To display readability statistics in MSWord (These instructions are for MSWord 2007):

• On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Spelling & Grammar tab.
• Select the Check grammar with spelling check box.
• Select the Show readability statistics check box, and then click OK.
• On the Standard toolbar, click Spelling and Grammar Button image.

When Microsoft Word finishes checking spelling and grammar, it displays information about the reading level of the document.

TIP- When copying and pasting text from Internet web sites into Microsoft Word:

1. Edit/Copy then highlight text from the website
2. Go to your MSWord document
3. Click on Edit then choose PASTE SPECIAL
4. Paste as Formatted or Unformatted text, NOT HTML

Now you can work with the information without the interference of invisible web code.