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 words 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.
Copyright 1983. Hawkhill Associates, Inc. 125 E. Gilman St., Madison, WI 53703.
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