Automated readability index: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Type of readability test for English texts}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2015}}

The '''automated readability index''' ('''ARI)''') is a [[readability test]] for [[English language|English]] texts, designed to gauge the understandability of a text. Like the [[Flesch–Kincaid readability test|Flesch–Kincaid]] grade level, [[Gunning fog index]], [[SMOG index]], [[Fry readability formula]], and [[Coleman–Liau index]], it produces an approximate representation of the [[Grade levels#USA and Canada|US grade level]] needed to comprehend the text.

The formula for calculating the automated readability index is given below:

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where ''characters'' is the number of letters and numbers, ''words'' is the number of spaces, and ''sentences'' is the number of sentences, which were counted manually by the typist when the above formula was developed. Non-integer scores are always rounded up to the nearest whole number, so a score of 10.1 or 10.6 would be converted to 11.

As a rough guide, US grade level 1 corresponds to ages 6–8. Reading level grade 8 corresponds to the typical reading level of a 14-year-old US child. Grade 12, the highest US secondary-school grade before college, corresponds to the reading level of a 17-year-old.

Unlike the other indices, the ARI, along with the Coleman–Liau, relies on a factor of characters per word, instead of the usual syllables per word. Although opinion varies on its accuracy as compared to the syllables/word and complex words indices, characters/word is often faster to calculate, as the number of characters is more readily and accurately counted by computer programs than syllables. In fact, this index was designed for real-time monitoring of readability on electric typewriters.<ref>{{cite journal

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| date = November 1967

| title = Automated Readability Index.

|journal= Amrl-Tr. Aerospace Medical Research Laboratories (U.s.)

| url = http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=AD0667273

|pages= 1–14

| url = https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD667273.pdf

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130408131249/http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=AD0667273

| url-status = live

| archive-date = April 8, 2013

| publisher = [[Wright-Patterson Air Force Base]]

| id = AMRL-TR-6620

| page pmid= iii5302480

| accessdateaccess-date = 2012-03-18

}}</ref>

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|12

|16-17

|Eleventh gradeGrade

|-

|13

|17-18

|Twelfth gradeGrade

|-

|14

|18-22

|College student

|}