How do you know if you’ve succeeded with getting your copy to the right grade level? Two easy-to-use tools:
Word.
The ubiquitous word processing program makes doing a readability check simple. Run spell check, but don’t be so quick to close the dialogue box that appears after it’s done. You’ll see a readability report, which includes your Flesch-Kincaid score.
Readable.io.
I love Readable! Here you can upload your file or paste your text, and you’ll get a readability score (A-F) along with the grade level of the writing based on several scoring methods. (Flesch-Kincaid is one of the methods.) What’s really awesome about Readable is that it will highlight problem areas, showing you the specific paragraphs, sentences and words that are increasing the grade level of your writing. That way you don’t have to play guessing games.