Count the words, and see how hard your writing is to read
An essay with a limit, and a word count that has to be honest about it. This counts as you type and also tells you how dense the prose has become, which is the more useful number when a marker has thirty of these to get through.
Words, characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs
Reading time at 238 words a minute, speaking time at 130
Double spaced 12pt Times, which is roughly 250 words a page
Flesch reading ease and Flesch-Kincaid grade level
How to use it
- Type or paste into the field. Everything updates as you go.
- Watch the count in the margin against the limit you set.
- Check the reading ease. Sixty to seventy is comfortable prose. Below thirty reads like a legal notice.
- The longest sentences are listed underneath, because one runaway sentence is usually what drags a whole paragraph down.
Questions
Does this match what my word processor says?
Very nearly. Words are counted as runs of characters separated by whitespace, which is what Word does too. Small differences show up around hyphenated compounds and numbers with units, so treat a limit of exactly 2000 as 1990 to be safe.
What is a Flesch reading ease score?
A number from a 1948 formula that weighs sentence length against syllables per word. Ninety and above is very easy reading, sixty to seventy is plain English, and below thirty is heavy going. It measures sentence and word length only, so it cannot tell whether an argument is any good.
How is the page estimate worked out?
At 250 words a page, which is the usual figure for double spaced 12 point Times New Roman with one inch margins. Single spaced it is nearer 500. If your department specifies a format, trust their count over this one.
Is my essay sent anywhere?
No. Nothing you type leaves the page, and nothing is saved between visits either.