"Professor' Obama? President's SOTUS Notches 4th Lowest Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Score

Text of Obama's Address has a readability score for an average 8th grader - two grades lower than George W. Bush's Addresses and the historical average for modern presidents

Barack Obama's ability as a public speaker since his 2008 presidential campaign has been alternately viewed, often depending on whether or not one is an Obama supporter, along various dyads: being inspirational versus being aloof, intellectualizing versus lecturing etc.

Along those lines, in her first month as a commentator for FOX News, Sarah Palin criticized Obama's first State of the Union Address on Wednesday night as "lecturing" the American public.

Unlike the criticisms hurled at his predecessor, however, few have ever charged that the President, a former senior lecturer in Constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School, has written or spoken too simplistically or catered his words to the lowest common denominator.

However, a Smart Politics analysis of nearly 70 oral State of the Union Addresses since the mid-1930s finds the text of Obama's speech on Wednesday evening to have one of the lowest scores on the Flesch-Kincaid readability test ever recorded by a U.S. President.

I think I just glimpsed the spin that will be used to counter this infromation - it’s in the comment immediately below the article (hint: it’s us, not Obama). Here’s the quote:

“This article is interesting but seems to be making the wrong point. I was struck by the plain spokenness of the adress myself as I’ve never heard him give a speech quite like it. I’m sure Obama could have written and given a much more complex address and has. But after dealing with the ignorance and immaturity of the American public for the past year, I’m sure he was aiming low for a reason.

Posted by: aparks | January 29, 2010 4:27 PM”

It’s definitely not pseudo-science. The Flesch-Kincaid is a well known method for gauging reading level. Publishing companies rely on it!

Maybe. But I put the first page of the SOTU into Readability index calculator and got

Flesch-Kincaid Grade level: 10.
Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score: 55.

Yet my mind can't work out what he is saying. It seems just random phrases thrown together.

Counterpoint: Jessica Watson is a 16 year old girl sailing a yacht alone around the world

Sunny, Foggy and Flat
I know sunny and foggy isn't your normal combination and up and until yesterday I had no idea that the two could exist together either. It was certainly very strange, as one minute I had a perfect sunny conditions and the next the sun was still shining, but through a thick layer of fog. A bit odd or I thought so anyway. The fog hung around for the rest of the day and the night reminding me of the foggy conditions we had at around this latitude heading south in the Pacific.
We've also had really gentle sailing conditions, I can hardly believe how little swell there is and flat it is, which makes life nice and comfortable. We haven't been making the most amazing speeds with the light winds, but Ella's Pink Lady has been able to keep up a steady pace to the east. All this warm sunshine and easy sailing reminds me of the tropics and feels like holiday!
It's amazing that after only a few days of quiet conditions so many of my habits have changed. Mostly little things like leaving things out on the bench and sleeping out in the cockpit , its actually quite a thrill to be able to sit a cup down for a moment without it flying across the room. I have to keep reminding myself to keep everything tidy and shipshape, as I know that this will only last so long.
Only 2000nm to the Cape of Good Hope. That's going to be it from me today as I'm keen to get back outside into the sunshine!

Flesch-Kincaid Grade level: 11.
Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score: 56.

The "most difficult" blog on the page comes out Grade level: 13 and Reading ease: 46 - And it's still easier to read and understand than Obama

It's not just the words, but whether they are actually saying something

It's not just the words, but whether they are actually saying something

These statistical tools are just interesting curiosities.

For example, Edit Central gives the following analysis of Jessica's blog entry:

Flesch reading ease score:

    76.5
Automated readability index:

    9.3
Flesch-Kincaid grade level:

    8.2
Coleman-Liau index:

    7.1
Gunning fog index:

    11.2
SMOG index:

    9.1

1418 characters
1144 non-space characters
1117 letters/numbers
271 words
15 complex words
344 syllables
12 sentences
4.12 chars per word
1.27 syllables per word
22.58 words per sentence

For Zero's utterances, it coughs up:

Flesch reading ease score:

    67.5
Automated readability index:

    9.6
Flesch-Kincaid grade level:

    8.7
Coleman-Liau index:

    9.2
Gunning fog index:

    12.3
SMOG index:

    11.1

33770 characters
27536 non-space characters
26782 letters/numbers
5940 words
673 complex words
8394 syllables
304 sentences
4.51 chars per word
1.41 syllables per word
19.54 words per sentence

And, as long as we are discussing Illinois lawyers in the White House, here is how it scores Mr Lincoln's most famous speech (press the Demo button on the site):

Flesch reading ease score:

    70.4
Automated readability index:

    12.2
Flesch-Kincaid grade level:

    10.1
Coleman-Liau index:

    8.4
Gunning fog index:

    13.4
SMOG index:

    10.3

1461 characters
1189 non-space characters
1152 letters/numbers
268 words
18 complex words
346 syllables
10 sentences
4.3 chars per word
1.29 syllables per word
26.8 words per sentence

For one more point of comparison, here is its scoring of Why Nerds are Unpopular, by Paul Graham, a rich nerd:

Flesch reading ease score:

    79.8
Automated readability index:

    6.5
Flesch-Kincaid grade level:

    5.7
Coleman-Liau index:

    8.1
Gunning fog index:

    9.4
SMOG index:

    9.3

31803 characters
26013 non-space characters
25063 letters/numbers
5666 words
521 complex words
7542 syllables
398 sentences
4.42 chars per word
1.33 syllables per word
14.24 words per sentence

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.