One of my friends is suggesting that we make a trip to Uluru and see the unique light show Field of Light near there. It’s an art installation that employs tens of thousands of small frosted-glass spheres that light up at night. They transform their setting into a dreamily lit wonderland created by Bruce Munro.

Now I think the above is fairly easy to read and the reading ease is 66.1 and the grade level is 8.8. I’ll explain what that means in a moment.

Now check out the following paragraph taken from a promotional piece for the work.

Save Australia’s bustling cities and attention-seeking beaches for another time and make a trip to Bruce Munro’s Field of Light before it switches off next April. This otherworldly instillation, located 15 kilometres north of Uluru, comprises 50,000 frosted-glass bulbs, the interconnected stems of which are planted into the Outback’s red earth. The solar-powered tendrils light up at night, changing colour as you walk through them, illuminating a vast 49,000 square kilometres. Wake up early and watch the vivid shoots be washed oblique at sunrise, or enjoy a hazy rainbow sunset, as the clear stems turn into a vivid light show under the stars. You’ll try to intellectualise what this ephemeral instillation might mean as you wander through it and indeed, Munro’s temporary, high-tech stems juxtaposed against eternal Uluru are loaded with symbolism. But just try to enjoy the sight for what it is: glorious.

Pretty heavy going isn’t it? The reading ease is 36.1 and the grade level is 14.1.

What does it all mean ?Well, if you want to make your writing easy to understand the idea is to get the reading ease as close to 100 as possible and the grade level down to around 10.

So, I try to get what I write to a grade level around10. That means that anyone who got to year 10 can understand it! After year 10 most people stop learning English.

If you want to know more about these statistics see How to assess the reading level of text using Microsoft Word

What are my simple tips to write to that level?

• Short sentences.
• No more than 2-3 sentences in a paragraph.
• Minimum use of 3 (or more) syllable words.
• No jargon.
• Write like I’m talking to you.