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The Fog Index

Posted on Friday, January 31, 2014 at 11:01 AM

Assessing the readability of an Economist.com excerpt.

This month, our Fog Index sample comes from a January 25 article on Economist.com ("Spam in the Fridge: When the Internet of Things Misbehaves," from the print edition). Here's the excerpt:

"If you are in marketing, this is a great idea. Being able to browse the internet from your television, switch on your washing machine from the office or have your fridge e-mail you to say that you are running out of orange juice is a good way to sell more televisions, washing machines and fridges. If you are a computer-security researcher, though, it is a little worrying. For, as owners of desktop computers are all too aware, the internet is a two-way street. Once a device is online, people other than its owners may be able to connect to it and persuade it to do their bidding."

--Word count: 107 words
--Average sentence length: 21 words (10, 45, 12, 16, 24)
--Words with 3+ syllables: 7 percent (8/107 words)
--Fog Index: (21+7)*.4 = 11 (no rounding)

This excerpt is in great shape. The average sentence length is low, and there are few longer words. Still, a few changes here and there might further improve the Fog score. Here's our slightly tweaked version (with series commas added for house style):

"If you are in marketing, this is a great idea. Want to sell more televisions, washing machines, and fridges? Tell people they can browse the internet from your television, switch on your washing machine from the office, or get an e-mail from your fridge saying that you are running out of orange juice. If you are a computer-security researcher, though, it is a little worrying. As desktop computer owners are all too aware, the internet is a two-way street. Once a device is online, people other than its owners may be able to connect to it and persuade it to do their bidding."

--Word count: 103 words
--Average sentence length: 17 words (10, 9, 34, 12, 14, 24)
--Words with 3+ syllables: 8 percent (8/103 words)
--Fog Index: (17+8)*.4 = 10 (no rounding)

With our changes, we were able to shave a point off the Fog Index. Note that the percentage of longer words went up a point because the total word count decreased. However, splitting up the longer second sentence cut four points from the average sentence length.

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