FOG INDEX
How High is Your
Fog Index?
- Find the average number
of words you use per sentence. Take a fair sample of 5 to 8 sentences.
Count clearly independent clauses as separate sentences. Example:
"By and by I ran; I jumped; I hid." This counts as
three sentences.
- Calculate the percentage
of words that are three syllables or more. Don't count proper
names. Don't count verbs that make three syllables or adding
-es or -ed.
- Add these two figures.
Example: if your average number of words per sentence was was
15, and the percentage of words three syllables or more was 12%,
you would add 15 and 12 to get 27.
- Multiply that sum by
0.4. The resulting number is your Fog Index, a rough measure
of how many years of schooling it would take to understand what
you have written. In our example, multiplying 27 by 0.4 equals
a Fog Index of 10.8. The Bible, Shakespeare, Mark Twain, and
TV Guide all have Fog Indexes of about 6. Time, Newsweek, and
the Wall St. Journal average about 11. If you find your Index
soaring into the teens (or higher!) --- beware --- you've lost
most of your audience in the dense fog.
Source: Gunning
R. (1968) The techniques of clear writing. New York: McGraw-Hill.
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