Gmail inbox Readability Score

Description

A readability score is a number that tells you how easy it will be to read a text–email. Summarly’s readability score is based on the average length of sentences and words in an email, using a formula known as the Flesch reading-ease test–Inspired by Rudolf Flesch which constructed the formula in the early 1940s.

When you read an email you will see a numerical score just below the subject–a score between 0 and 100. A score of 100 means the email is very easy to read and a score of 0 means the email is very difficult to read.

You can see the exact interpretation of all the scores on the scale in the table below.

90-100 easily understood by an average 11-year-old student
80-90 easy to read
70-80 fairly easy to read
60-70 easily understood by 13- to 15-year-old students
50-60 fairly difficult to read
30-50 difficult to read, best understood by college graduates
0-30 very difficult to read, best understood by university graduates

In most cases, a score of 60 or higher means an email will be easy to read for most people with at least an eighth-grade education (that’s an average 13-year-old, in case you’re unfamiliar with U.S. grade levels).

Determining the linguistic complexity of an email, allows you to prepare the time you need to read an email in full–it helps choosing the right email for the right amount of available time you have–you can filter emails by readability score.