Today, we are going to assess our READABILITY, which means the personal grade level we are writing at. We are going to do this by means of a formula developed by Edward Fry: the so-called "Fry graph."
What we need:
For homework and in-class assignments, you have written three 100-words samples:
1) your comment about ENGFISH,
2) your comment about Word Order,
3) your comment about Sharpening.
TASK 1:
Now, cut down each of these three 100-words samples down to EXACTLY 100 words. You can use the word count of Microsoft Word by pasting your blog comment into a Word document, or you can copy and paste it into the word count tool. Simply delete all the words over 100, even if you have to stop in the middle of a sentence.
1) Count the number of sentences in your 100 words sample. (If you had less than 100 words, add more. If you had more, just stop after having counted up to 100, and delete the rest.) Estimate the length of your last sentence, even if incomplete, to the nearest 1/10.
2) Count the number of syllables in your 100 words sample.
3) Make a table as seen in these INSTRUCTIONS. Draw this table on the handout I give you, because you will receive points for it, and I will collect it at the end of today's lesson!
4) Do the same for your second and third 100-words sample.
5) Total your numbers, and average them. (A little bit of math ;-)). You can use the Microsoft calculator ;-)
7) Make a dot on the FRY GRAPH I distributed in class where your personal readability lies. Write your name on the handout with your graph and your table, and submit it to your teacher for grading (I'm not grading the height of your readability, only the fact that you participated and understood the procedure!) There are no make-ups for this assignment.
HOMEWORK for Wednesday:
Post a comment to this blog (100-250 words) about what you think about your personal readability level. Do you believe the Fry graph correctly displays the grade level you're writing at? Why, or why not? What could be missing? What could the readability level be used for? Will knowing your personal readability level change anything about your future writing? Do you think you have a different readability level when you blog than when you write a research article like you did for this class?
According to the Fry Graph my writing level is at grade seven. This seems accurate for the blog, but for writing papers I believe my writing level is higher. When writing a paper I focus more on word choice and “sharpening”. I believe the readability level is used to show writers what level they are writing on and who should be able to read their work. Now that I know what readability level I am writing at I can use this task as a learning experience and try to write more complex pieces of my college courses.
ReplyDeleteI do believe the Fry Graph accurately displays the grade level I was writing at because a 7th grader could read what I am writing and understand what I am trying to say. This readability could be extremely useful as a future teacher, and I know that teachers use it currently. When I become a teacher, I could make sure that directions that I give my students are not above their reading level. It can also determine what kind of books students should be reading if they are at a certain reading level.
ReplyDeleteI do think my readability level is much different when writing a formal paper than on a blog because of the amount of time I put into it. Also, with a blog I am simply writing what comes to mind without hesitation or thinking about sentence length or word choice. Considering, it is a free write, it is not going to be nearly as in depth as other writings that I would do.
It would be interesting to see what my readability level is on other types of writing such as research papers that I write.
I think that the fry graph accurately shows my writing level as of the paragraphs that i wrote although these short paragraphs were written very quickly and there wasn't a lot of thought put into them. I think that if we took something from our survey papers which we spent more time writing and more time on the grammar and sentence structure, and judged those that we would get completely different results.I feel that my readability level will change in the future, because i am still learning and my writing style will change as i take more classes and learn more about different writing styles and more about grammar
ReplyDeleteSince the writing on this blog is more conversational than writing a paper for a class, I believe that it makes sense that there is a lower reading level. However, I am not 100% sure that the Fry graph really works. By only counting sentences and syllables I think that it leaves out important parts of how each person writes. I think that you need to look more into the words that the person is using more so than just counting syllables. Readability could be used to help know where to place students in school. Knowing my readability level will not change much about my writing.
ReplyDeleteI think that for the most part my personal reading level is pretty accurate. I do think that my readability level is probably at a seventh grade level because my writing is balanced between long sentences and long words. I do think that that the Fry graph correctly displays the grade level that I’m at for writing blogs and short assignments but for writing papers and longer pieces of writing I think my writing level is higher. When I write a blog I just give basic thoughts to just answer the question but when I write a paper I focus on word choice and I spend a lot of time making sure my paper is “sharp.”
ReplyDeleteThe readability level could be used to show writers what level they’re at and how old people should be to understand their own work. Knowing my personal readability will change my future because I will try to write better pieces of writing that will impress my professors more. I do have a different readability level when writing a blog compared to writing a research article for this class because for a blog I restate the questions more and it’s not as interesting. Also for a research article I use better word choice and incorporates more aspects of good writing to my papers.
I wish I had known about the fry graph a long time ago. I might have been paying more attention to the way I write. I do not, however, believe the fry graph depicts a very accurate description of my writing abilities. I wrote the comments without very much thought and intellectual ideas do not come naturally to me. When I write a research paper I pay attention to the words I write and try to make them sound smart. Readability level of my meaningful academic texts is college level. I think the fry graph should be more widely used in the education system. It can be an eye-opener for some people and get them on the right track to improve their writing ability. My readability level is very different when I write for this blog then when I write a research article. I don’t see a need to write with a very high level for this blog. I am only hoping for my grammar to be right.
ReplyDeleteI seldom trust graphs and aptitude tests for personal reasons and beliefs that I cannot ignore in consenting to this. Interesting though it may be, I am not completely sold on the idea of a graph determining my comprehensibility and as someone has posted earlier in the blog, I don't believe the samples we used were accurate portrayals of our writing. The individual writes with varying intentions that should not be reduced to a number on a graph for "readability purposes," and to fall into some presupposed level of writing that perhaps is less accurate itself than it would seem.
ReplyDeleteMy personal readability level is eighth grade, as it could be lower I am relieved to find it is what might have deduced it to be. Readability levels in this situation are a murky reflection of your own comfort level of writing and since we were not specifically told that we would be assessing the samples we submitted in such a manner, the evaluation benefited from the element of surprise. I would consider an eighth grade level readability a commodity if I were going into journalism, however, since I am more interested in academic writing this rude awakening will force me to expand vocabulary and push my own comfort levels in raising my readability level.
My readability level was shown to be at a ninth grade level. I am always skeptical of these types of graphs though. There can be inconsisencies in the way that it's used. For this assignment, my comments were quickly thought out and attention to detail was lacking.These comments were more informal and may not acurately show the same readability level than paper that are revises and more important grade wise. I certainly try to use correct grammar on the blog for this class but readability can be influenced in different ways.It would be interesting to see what the readability level of my research papers. Does it compare to these comments? If it does then maybe I can improve it.If this is the level I am writing at then I can use that for future classes to improve.
ReplyDeleteThe Fry graph has me as writing at an 10th grade level and I can definitely dig that. I'm not sure that I write at a significantly higher level outside of the blog, but definitely some.
ReplyDeleteIf I were asked to guess my readability level prior to this exercise, I would have guessed it somewhere in the neighborhood of 11th or 12th grade; so, I believe it's fairly accurate.
I honestly don't think that the Fry graph will influence me to change my writing anytime soon. However, if I had scored at the 3rd grade level or some nonsense, that would be a different story.
I do not think that the Fry graph is accurate in determining an overall writing capability, however I think that it would be satisfactory for determining the writing level for a blog. I would hope that my writing level is higher than grade 9, as I found on the graph. I think different reflectory words including definitely has four syllables, which would make my score higher. Also, instead of using "don't" I broke up the contraction and said "do not". This simple step gives me another syllable and therefore raises my writing score.
ReplyDeleteI believe that I was correctly placed on the Fry graph. I feel that my readability level is in fact, in the 12th grade/college level. I take pride in my writing and after seeing where I was placed on the Fry graph, I was content. However, I do make mistakes and the Fry graph does not account for that, in terms of consistency. We were only asked to submit three short writing assignments for analysis and I feel that with more data, the results would vary and perhaps be worse. Contrary, I think the Fry graph should be used more often. It would be a great tool in high school writing classes to analyze where students are, and where they should be. I have never seen the Fry graph before, but I think it is great. After seeing these results, maybe my writing will change and I will become more consistent and coherent. When posting a blog, my writing definitely differs in readability, than when writing a formal research paper. The difference has to do with the time spent writing as well as proofreading.
ReplyDelete