Our free
DALE-CHALL READABILITY CALCULATOR will analyze your text and score the "reading ease" or "reading difficulty" of your text based on both the original and new Dale-Chall formulas. You'll find out the type of readers who are most likely to understand your text, including their grade level and age. ( Learn more about:
the original Dale-Chall |
the new Dale-Chall ) (If you need to score Spanish text, go to
SpanishReadability.com)
The Dale-Chall Formula is unique because, unlike other formulas that use word-length to assess word difficulty, the Dale-Chall Formula uses a count of "hard" words. The Dale-Chall Formula calculates the US grade level of a text sample based on sentence length and the number of "hard" words. These "hard" words are words that do not appear on a specially designed list of common words familiar to most students. ( Learn more about
The Dale-Chall Word List )
1. GET STARTED
Paste your text into the text area or upload a .txt file from your computer. For Word or .pdf documents, first copy the text into your clipboard, then paste into our text area. Otherwise, type your text into the text area. For texts exceeding 2K words, we recommend processing random samples of your text. You can select this option below the text area.
2. SELECT THE FORMULA
Make sure you check the Dale-Chall Readability Formula checkbox.
3. FINE-TUNE OUR SYSTEM
Open the "System Settings" (below the formulas) and change default settings if need be to fine-tune how the scoring system processes your text. Click on any [ ? ] to get more information about the option.
4. FOR BEST RESULTS
Make sure your text is spell-checked beforehand. Misspellings can alter results. Each sentence should end with a punctuation mark, otherwise run-on sentences can alter results. Abbreviated words should be correctly abbreviated (Mr. or Mrs. not Mr or Mrs). A clean, properly-formatted and grammatically-correct text will yield the best results.
5. READY, SET, GO!
When you're ready, hit the "Calculate Text Readability" button. Our system will analyze and score your text and output the information on a new page. Our free Dale-Chall Readability Tool will analyze your text and output the results to help you determine the grade level for your text.
6. WORD STATS ONLY
If you need a fast way to see "Word Statistics" for your text, select any formula and hit the "Calculate Text Readability" button. Our system will process your text and output important stats, such as syllable count, average sentence length, number of abbreviations, proper nouns, passive voice, etc.
If you'd like to learn more about readability formulas and their importance to text comprehension, then go to our
ARTICLES SECTION.