Initially, I planned to simply review Twurdy, but as I researched and evaluated this readability search engine, I realized that it would also be nice to test websites for readability directly. That is how I discovered Juicy Studio Readability form and TxReadability. I don’t vouch for the accuracy of any of these tools, but I do feel they help make us more aware of what our students are reading and what we are writing (for example the readability of my blog). Please feel free to share your thoughts and opinions regarding the tools mentioned in this post. I especially appreciate input from reading teachers.

I have a confession…when I first heard the term “Twurdy” my mind went to the toilet (I wonder what that says about me). Fortunately, I got beyond the toilet thoughts and gave Twurdy a whirl. The name of the product was actually derived from a play on the words “too wordy” and the product was developed with the following philosophy in mind…

“Everyone has different reading abilities. Some people searching the web are university professors and others are 5 year old children. Twurdy has been created to provide people with access to search results that suit their own readability level.”

What it does…

“Twurdy uses text analysis software to “read” each page before it is displayed in the results. Then Twurdy gives each page a readability level. Twurdy then shows the readability level of the page along with a color coded system to help users determine how easy the page will to understand.”

Twurdy’s Goal…

“to provide web searchers with information that is most appropriate for them. This will mean that 10 year olds doing school assignments don’t have to click through difficult material to find something they can use. It will also mean that phd students do not have to click through websites designed for kids in order to find what they are looking for.”

Twurdy has customized readability software that includes information about the number of words on a page, the average number of syllables in each word, and the average sentence length and returns results in shaded boxes that represent readability levels. As a web designer, I question this strategy since I know some designers incorporate text in their graphic design. I doubt that words turned into graphic format can be scanned and analyzed by any readability software. Still…I am sure there are many web pages that do not include that has been turned into a graphic image.

Twurdy also features different searches. Refer to my graphic below to gain a greater understanding of how the different searches work…

I tried several searches using Twurdy and thought the results were pretty good, overall. I did find it frustrating that I could not input a website to get the readability results…you can only search for webpages and hope they appear in the search results (which are based on Google searches…see my review of JuicyStudio below). While I would certainly like to have some reading teachers evaluate this tool, I can see where it could hold promise for students who are learning to use the web for research purposes. Students could use Twurdy to search for an animal (for example) and then check the results looking for the shade that best suits their reading level. The lighter the result box, the easier the reading. You see a sample results screenshot below…

As I mentioned earlier in my post, I wish that Twurdy had a way to evaluate the readability of a specific web page. Well, I have discovered that usually my wishes come true if I search long enough and that is how I came across the Juicy Studio Readability form. Use this terrific form/site to input a webpage you would like to evaluate for readability. The creator of this tool does an excellent job explaining the results.

Another site that includes a tool that you can use to evaluate text and/or a webpage is TxReadability. The site is not as detailed in results as the Juicy Studio tool, but it is pretty neat because it includes readability for English, Spanish, or Japanese. You can input a webpage address or copy and paste text via a form submission.

By the way, my blog post received similar results with each tool I tested.

If you are interested in readability tools you might enjoy the following past posts:

Do any of your students have trouble focusing as they read a webpage; does the advertising distract them? Do you have students with vision challenges that make it difficult for them to read a “regular” webpage? The Readability tool created by Arc90 Lab is an excellent and free application you can add to a browser. In fact, I am so impressed with this free tool I would suggest that it become part of the computer image used on all school computers. Readability works with most major modern browsers and has been tested on many news sites and blogs. It isn’t 100% effective but works surprisingly well and serves as an excellent text optimizer for many of the cluttered webpages that many students find distracting. I tried this application in both Chrome and Foxfire with good results. Below, I have posted screenshots of a blog entry before I used the Readability Tool and after.

BEFORE….

AFTER….

Watch the following video to learn more about this terrific little tool that I feel would have great application as an assistive technology application….then, try it out as you browse through a number of different webpages.

Reading articles is getting harder and harder on the Web. Readability is an easy-to-use bookmarklet that quickly removes all the clutter around what you’re trying to read.

To install it

1. visit: http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability
2. Customize your reading view.
3. Add the bookmarklet to your browser’s toolbar.

Whenever you’re on a page worth reading, simply click on the Readability link.