Improve Your Writing on Steemit: Write like an 8th grader

The trick to writing better Steemit posts is to calculate the most important score that every writer should keep track of: The Flesch-Kincaid grade level test (F-K score)

The F-K score was developed by the US Navy in 1975. The US Department of Defense uses the F-K score as a standard to check the readability of its documents. The F-K score determines what grade level you are writing at. If your score is 8, you are writing at an 8th grade reading level. If your score is 12, you are writing at a 12th grade reading level. The lower the score the better. When you want write an article, tell a story or express yourself make sure to be simple and to not use complicated words. From research, I have found that anything above an 8 is considered bad sales writing and can turn readers off. The F-K score is used in sales and marketing promotions to affect the most, not the best.

I ran an experiment on Steemit by taking the 15 top articles that were trending 6/23/2017. These articles averaged ~$2,000 per post. For each article, I calculated the F-K score using Microsoft Word 2016 and found that the average score was a 7.2 or a 7th grade writing level. There were some outliers that mostly came from the cryptocurrency posts which received an 11th grade writing level. I did not want to call anyone out in the Steemit community for their writing style but I found a few example of widely read text that support the F-K score.

1. The King James Bible, the most read book in the world, was written on a 6th grade level.
2. Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway was written on a 4th grade level
3. President Trump speeches during the 2016 US elections were written at about a 3rd grade level
4. Hillary Clinton speeches in comparison were written at an 8th grade level
5. Hunter S. Thompson as well as J.K. Rawling wrote at about a 6th grade level

Maybe this sounds like a lot of BS. But remember the fewer word you need to convey your meaning the better. Verbs over nouns, always. Readers tend to fill in the gaps with their own thoughts and imagination. It helps to make readers invest in the text, enjoy it more, and remember it longer.

Lastly, the art of writing effectively is important in the 21st century. Steemit posts, texts, emails, ads, etc. is how we as a community share our thoughts and opinions. If you have a great idea for a Steemit post or simply want your ideas to be heard, then write at an 8th grade writing level or lower. Write something that the masses will want to read and you may be rewarded for your efforts.

The F-K score is calculated by words per sentence and syllables per word and a few coefficients as seen below:

If you don’t want to bust out a calculator and calculate the score you can use the Microsoft Word or Microsoft Office built in F-K score tracker simply by: