Linsear Write Readability Formula

The Linsear Write readability formula is generally recommended for technical manuals and is primarily used by the U.S. Air Force. This test calculates the U.S. grade level of a text sample based on sentence length and number of complex words (i.e., words that contain three or more syllables).

Note that all numeral words are treated as monosyllabic for this test, so Readability Studio always ignores your numeral syllabication setting when calculating it.

The Linsear Write Formula

• Count the number of easy words (i.e., words containing two syllables or less).
• Count the number of hard words (i.e., words containing three syllables or more).
• Multiply the number of hard words by 3.
• Add these numbers together.
• Divide this sum by the number of sentences from the sample.
• If the result is larger than 20 then divide by 2.
• Else if the result is less than or equal to 20 then subtract 2 and divide by 2.

This test recommends using a 100-word sample when performing it manually; however, note that Readability Studio always analyzes your entire document to guarantee the most accurate results and does not use subsamples for any of its test calculations.