Talk:SMOG/Temp

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SMOG or Simple Measure Of Gobbledygook is a readability formula devised by G. Harry McLaughlin in 1969; it predicts the approximate grade level of student to completely understand the writing. It has a correlation of 0.985 with a standard deviation of 1.52 grades and works across a broad range of works unlike some older formulas.

The formula uses the of words that have three or more syllables, called polysyllables, as a proxy for difficult words.

There has been some research of apply the basic formula into other romance languages.[1]

[edit] Formula

The original formula was given for a 30 sentence samples, which is:

\mbox{SMOG grade} = 1.0430 \sqrt{ \mbox{polysyllabic words in a 30 sentence sample} } \ + 3.1291

This can be modified to work with an arbitrary number of sentences:

\mbox{SMOG grade} = 1.0430 \sqrt{ \mbox{polysyllabic words} \times \frac{30}{ \mbox{sentences} } } \ + 3.1291

A version is also giving which is easier for mental math:

  1. Count the number of polysyllabic words, excluding proper nouns, in a thirty sentences.
  2. Take the square root of the nearest perfect square
  3. Add 3

[edit] References

  1. ^ Contreras, A.; Garcia-alonso, R.; Echenique, M.; Daye-contreras, F. (1999). "The SOL Formulas for Converting SMOG Readability Scores Between Health Education Materials Written in Spanish, English, and French". Journal of Health Communication 4 (1): 21-29.