Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level

The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level is an index intended to represent the level of linguistic maturity reflected in the text. The inputs to its formula are sentence and word lengths. The index is reported as a standard grade.

Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease

The Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease index predicts how easy/difficult the text will be for others to read based on average sentence length and word length. The index values range from zero (0) to one-hundred (100), zero being most difficult and one-hundred least difficult. The index maps into grade levels also as follows:

90-100 Very Easy (4th Grade)

80-89 Easy (5th Grade)

70-79 Fairly Easy (6th Grade)

60-69 Standard (7th-8th Grade)

50-59 Fairly Hard (Some High School)

40-49 Difficult (High School - College)

30-39 Very Difficult (College and Beyond)

Gunning Fog Index

Gunning's Fog index uses average sentence length and big words (the number of words containing four syllables or more) as a measure of reading difficulty. Low numbers, say, below ten (10), signify the use of simple vocabulary, while higher numbers, e.g., in the twenties, signal the presence of verbose text.
 

THOUGHT PROBLEM:

The Bible says in Genesis 1:30, “...I have given every green herb for meat...” If we read modern meanings into the words herb and meat, what would animals and people in our day have to do to comply with this verse in their eating habits?

Language drift is an expression used by linguists to describe the tendency of languages to gradually change over time. Assuming that herb and meat shifted their reference (meaning) over time, what meanings would you reconstruct for the ancient counterparts of these modern English words?

THOUGHT PROBLEM:

The Bible says in Genesis 1:26-27, “And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness ... So God created man in his own image ...”

Words take their meanings from the entities that they refer to. If, at the time this conversation took place, man did not yet exist (the interpretation of most Judeo-Christian believers), then what did the word mean, if anything, at the moment it was uttered?

Is this a real paradox or is language simply playing tricks on us?

THOUGHT PROBLEM:

The Bible says in Genesis 10:25, “And unto Eber were born two sons; the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided ...”

Although there is no scientific foundation for such a claim, people often insist that the term divided in this context has reference to the separation of the earth’s land mass to form continents. Read Genesis 10:5 and propose another interpretation for divide.

6-R WRITING ASSIGNMENT:

Write a composition entitled SOLVING THE MAN PARADOX that proposes alternative solutions to the language puzzle presented in the last THOUGHT PROBLEM.

Consider, for example, the possiblity that a concept had already taken shape in the mind of God and the word man took a germ of meaning from the concept.

Consider also the possibility that language drift has altered in some way the language of the statement that was originally made.

Follow through on the other steps of the 6-R sequence.