How readability is scored
- Count words, sentences, and syllables. We tokenize the transcript, split sentences on terminal punctuation, and estimate syllables with the vowel-group method — counting clusters of a, e, i, o, u, and y, then dropping a silent trailing 'e' when appropriate.
- Compute Flesch Reading Ease. The formula is 206.835 minus 1.015 times average words-per-sentence minus 84.6 times average syllables-per-word. Higher scores mean easier reading.
- Compute grade-level metrics. Flesch-Kincaid grade is 0.39 times average words-per-sentence plus 11.8 times average syllables-per-word minus 15.59. Gunning Fog is 0.4 times the sum of average words-per-sentence and percentage of complex (3+ syllable) words.
What readability tells you about preaching
Spoken English consistently scores easier than written English because preachers naturally use shorter sentences, repetition, and concrete vocabulary. Most published sermons — when transcribed faithfully — fall between Flesch 65 and 80, equivalent to roughly a 6th- through 9th-grade reading level. That happens to align with the recommended target for general audience writing in journalism (Associated Press style guides suggest 8th grade; the Hemingway editor flags anything above 10th).
Higher scores are not automatically better. A sermon to a seminary chapel can profitably hover around 11th-grade level because the audience has the theological vocabulary to follow it. A sermon to a mixed congregation with new believers, ESL listeners, and children present should land closer to 7th grade. The point of the score is awareness: once you know where you are, you can choose where to be. Long compound sentences ("therefore, inasmuch as the Apostle Paul, writing under inspiration to the church at Corinth, sought to clarify…") inflate the syllables-per-word and words-per-sentence numbers simultaneously, pushing your grade level up two or three years in a single paragraph.
A practical workflow: transcribe the sermon, run it through the Transcript Cleaner to strip fillers, then paste the cleaned output here. Compare the score against your last few weeks. Tracked over a quarter, this becomes a remarkably honest mirror of your accessibility as a communicator.
Related tools
- Transcript Cleaner — strip fillers before measuring.
- Speaking Rate Analyzer — pair grade level with WPM.
- Sermon Word Counter — raw counts and reading time.
- Reading Time Calculator — how long the transcript takes to read.