Assessing the readability of an ArsTechnica.com excerpt.

This month’s Fog Index sample text comes from a November 28 article on ArsTechnica.com (“That Time Benjamin Franklin Tried [and Failed] to Electrocute a Turkey” by Jennifer Ouellette). Here’s the text, with longer words italicized for reference:

“That didn't keep Franklin from continuing his electrical investigations. He performed his famous kite-and-key experiment in June 1752, on the outskirts of Philadelphia. He constructed his kite frame out of two strips of cedar nailed together in the shape of an ‘X,’ and stretched a large silk handkerchief across the frame. He attached the key to a long silk string dangling from the kite, attaching the other end to a Leyden jar with a thin metal wire. Then he took the kite into a field during a thunderstorm, standing under a small shed to keep dry. When he saw loose filaments of twine "stand erect," indicating electrification, he pressed his knuckle to the key and received a small shock, thereby proving that lightning was indeed static electricity. He went on to invent the lightning rod, among other ingenious devices.”

--Word count: 139 words
--Average sentence length: 20 words (9, 14, 28, 26, 19, 31, 12)
--Words with 3+ syllables: 8 percent (11/139 words)
--Fog Index (20+8) * .4 = 11 (11.2, no rounding)

This Thanksgiving Day article served up the perfect Fog Index sample. The author delivers the scientific nitty-gritty without drowning the reader in dense jargon. Varied sentence length helps keep the Fog score low as well. A writer can get away with the occasional 25- or 30-word sentence if she balances it out with 10- and 15- word sentences. With a Fog score of 11, this excerpt doesn’t need any “defogging” from our end. Happy Thanksgiving, indeed!

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