What good are your written materials if your readers find them too difficult to understand? Alienate, bewilder and bore your readers, and they will hurl your materials in the trash can.

If you want to write effectively and ensure your readers can understand what you write, you need to assess the reading level of your materials by using one (or more than one) readability formula. Although we have used readability formulas for decades, using them -- with their many formulaic steps and tedious word/syllable/sentence counting -- can be a burden on the brain and a tax on time; that is, up until now.

READABILITY PLUS, a Windows/Macintosh-based reading assessment program by Micro Power & Light Co., automates the process of determining the reading level of your materials, saving you time, money and plenty of headaches. Simply import or paste your text into READABILITY PLUS, and the program quickly analyzes your text and tells you the reading level(s) of your material using up to nine of the most popular readability formulas.

READABILITY PLUS can give you reading levels on all of your materials; this includes technical manuals, reports, brochures, press releases, text books, articles, business publications, and so forth. Now you can feel confident that your readers will be able to understand your material and that you have not wasted your time and energy in writing your material for the wrong audience.

READABILITY PLUS is a productivity software package containing up to nine of the most widely used readability formulas supporting the assessment of written materials - primary through college level. Formulas include the Fry Graph, Dale-Chall, Flesch Reading Ease as well as Flesch Grade Level, FORCAST, FOG, SMOG, Powers-Somner-Kearl and Spache.

With access to a number of readability formulas, the READABILITY PLUS is an indispensable readability software for assessing the reading level of written materials - whether by reading specialists, teachers, trainers, librarians, instructional writers, curriculum writers, policy and procedure writers, technical writers ...

READABILITY PLUS contains the following nine formulas:

Formula # 1: Dale-Chall
A vocabulary-based formula normally used to assess upper elementary through secondary materials.

Formula # 2: Flesch Reading Ease
Normally used to assess adult materials, shows scores on a scale between 0 and 100.

Formula # 3: Flesch Grade Level
Most reliable when used with upper elementary and secondary materials.

Formula # 4: Fry Graph
Used over a wide grade range of materials, from elementary through college and beyond.

Formula # 5: FOG
Widely used in the health care and general insurance industries for general business publications.

Formula # 6: Powers-Sumner- Kear
Used in assessing primary through early elementary level materials.

Formula # 7: SMOG
Unlike any of the other formulas, SMOG predicts the grade level required for 100% comprehension.

Formula # 8: FORCAST Focuses on functional literacy. Used to assess non- running narrative, e.g. questionnaires, forms, tests ...

Formula # 9: Spache
A vocabulary-based formula widely used in assessing primary through fourth grade materials.

The following features make ReadabilityPLUS software the most complete and powerful program available in today's marketplace:

Help
In Context Screens include Help menus, providing ready instructions for use on that screen.

One Pass
In most cases you may specify multiple formulas to be applied in a single pass of the sample text.

Keyed Samples
Samples of text to be assessed may be entered directly into the program from the keyboard.

File Samples
The program can also evaluate samples created and saved as text files from any word processor.

Scanned Text
Program can accept scanned text, first cleaned and saved as text files from any word processor.

No Size Limits
The program accepts any size sample - from the conventional 100 words, to the entire text.

Raw Counts
In addition to actual formula scores, the program also displays all relevant raw data statistics.

Hardcopy Printout of all scores and raw data can be obtained at the conclusion of each assessment.

Text Editing
It is very easy to direct the program to ignore any words in its assessment of the sample.

User Manual
Includes all the basic information needed to install and use the program.

The Latest Info
A ReadMe file on the original media describes the newest features and operating tips.

BONUS: Vocabulary Assessor
ReadabilityPLUS also comes with THE VOCABULARY ASSESSOR.

Reading specialists, teachers, trainers, librarians, instructional writers, curriculum writers, policy and procedure writers, technical writers... any persons wanting to (1) identify all words in a document, or (2) identify just the potentially-difficult words, and (3) know how many times each such word occurs in the document.

Whereas Readability Calculations software indicates the appropriate grade-level of text material, the Vocabulary Assessor can go further - identifying exactly which words in the text are likely to be most troublesome for the intended readers.

How Does It Work? The document to be evaluated is input to the program as a text file, created and saved previously by any convenient word processor program.

Entire documents may be scanned into your favorite word processor, cleaned up by using that program's spelling checker, saved to disk as a text file... and then input into the Vocabulary Assessor for its analyses.

If you want the program to merely identify all words in the document, you need supply it only the document text.

Alternatively, if you want the program to identify only the words potentially difficult for a certain group of readers - in addition to the document text you must also supply the program a "vocabulary list" of words with which the readers are already assumed to be familiar.

Vocabulary Lists can be associated with grade level mastery, special education needs, subject mastery, etc. Such lists may be your own creation, or available from your state's education agencies, or any other source whatsoever

The Vocabulary Assessor compares every word in the document text with those in the vocabulary list, and identifies unmatched words as "potentially difficult." These may be reported in two useful sequences - alphabetically and frequency of occurrence.

The Vocabulary Assessor is frequently used with Readability Calculations. Consider the money-saving ReadabilityPlus package for purchasing the two together.

BONUS: Vocabulary Assessor

ReadabilityPLUS also comes with THE VOCABULARY ASSESSOR.

Reading specialists, teachers, trainers, librarians, instructional writers, curriculum writers, policy and procedure writers, technical writers... any persons wanting to (1) identify all words in a document, or (2) identify just the potentially-difficult words, and (3) know how many times each such word occurs in the document.

Whereas Readability Calculations software indicates the appropriate grade-level of text material, the Vocabulary Assessor can go further - identifying exactly which words in the text are likely to be most troublesome for the intended readers.

How Does It Work? The document to be evaluated is input to the program as a text file, created and saved previously by any convenient word processor program.

Entire documents may be scanned into your favorite word processor, cleaned up by using that program's spelling checker, saved to disk as a text file... and then input into the Vocabulary Assessor for its analyses.

If you want the program to merely identify all words in the document, you need supply it only the document text.

Alternatively, if you want the program to identify only the words potentially difficult for a certain group of readers - in addition to the document text you must also supply the program a "vocabulary list" of words with which the readers are already assumed to be familiar.

Vocabulary Lists can be associated with grade level mastery, special education needs, subject mastery, etc. Such lists may be your own creation, or available from your state's education agencies, or any other source whatsoever

The Vocabulary Assessor compares every word in the document text with those in the vocabulary list, and identifies unmatched words as "potentially difficult." These may be reported in two useful sequences - alphabetically and frequency of occurrence.

The Vocabulary Assessor is frequently used with Readability Calculations. Consider the money-saving ReadabilityPlus package for purchasing the two together.

	Readability Plus gives you the power of (9) popular readability formulas to find the reading level and grade level of your materials. Select as many formulas as you want at one time, and Readability Plus will find the reading and grade levels using your selected formulas. [ SEE SCREEN SHOT ]
	Readability Plus lets you key in your sample or import your sample from a text file. You may also copy and paste text directly into Readability Plus. Readability Plus has no limit size -- you can import text in any length. [ SEE SCREEN SHOT ]
	Readability Plus has no limit size -- you can import text of any length. [ SEE SCREEN SHOT ]
	Readability Plus gives you detailed statistics and information about your material. It gives you the reading level, grade level, word count, syllable count, sentence count, and number of difficult words. [ SEE SCREEN SHOT ]
	The Frey Graph gives you a visual illustration of who can read your material. [ SEE SCREEN SHOT ]
	The Dale-Chall Formula uses a vocabulary-based formula to assess upper elementary through secondary materials. It compares the Dale-Chall word list against the words in your document. [ SEE SCREEN SHOT ]
	The Dale-Chall Formula gives you detailed statistics and information about your material. It gives you the reading level, grade level, word count, syllable count, sentence count, and number of difficult words. The Dale-Chall Formula also lists all of the difficult words in your document and tells you how many times these difficult words appear. [ SEE SCREEN SHOT ]
	The Spache Formula is another vocabulary-based formula widely used in assessing primary through fourth grade materials. It gives you detailed statistics and information about your material. It gives you the reading level, grade level, word count, syllable count, sentence count, and number of difficult words. The Spache Forumla also lists all of the difficult words in your document and tells you how many times these difficult words appear. [ SEE SCREEN SHOT ]