Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!rutgers!mephisto!utkcs2!alphard!battle
From: battle@alphard.cs.utk.edu (David Battle)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: style
Message-ID: <1524@utkcs2.cs.utk.edu>
Date: 30 Dec 89 16:11:00 GMT
Sender: news@utkcs2.cs.utk.edu
Reply-To: battle@alphard.cs.utk.edu (David Battle)
Organization: CS Dept -- University of TN, Knoxville
Lines: 38

I recently discovered a command on my workstation which I had previously
been unaware of.  It it on a DECStation 3100 (Ultrix) and it is called
"style".  What I would like to know is what are the supposed meanings of
the various "readability grades"?  Is higher better?  What is the maximum
possible grade?  What criteria are used?  Here is some sample output.
Can someone explain what this means?

readability grades:
        (Kincaid) 13.9  (auto) 15.0  (Coleman-Liau) 13.2  (Flesch) 14.7 (38.9)
sentence info:
        no. sent 13 no. wds 319
        av sent leng 24.5 av word leng 5.13
        no. questions 0 no. imperatives 0
        no. nonfunc wds 189  59.2%   av leng 6.80
        short sent (<20) 38% (5) long sent (>35)  31% (4)
        longest sent 43 wds at sent 11; shortest sent 9 wds at sent 6
sentence types:
        simple  54% (7) complex   8% (1)
        compound  31% (4) compound-complex   8% (1)
word usage:
        verb types as % of total verbs
        tobe  41% (12) aux  28% (8) inf  34% (10)
        passives as % of non-inf verbs  26% (5)
        types as % of total
        prep 14.4% (46) conj 4.1% (13) adv 3.1% (10)
        noun 26.3% (84) adj 21.3% (68) pron 2.5% (8)
        nominalizations   4 % (12)
sentence beginnings:
        subject opener: noun (2) pron (3) pos (0) adj (2) art (3) tot  77%
        prep  23% (3) adv   0% (0)
        verb   0% (0)  sub_conj   0% (0) conj   0% (0)
        expletives   0% (0)


					-David L. Battle
					 battle@battle.esd.ornl.gov
					 battle@utkux1.utk.edu
					 battle@utkvx2.BITNET