When using the Hemmingway Editor, take the grading with a pinch of salt

For writing assignments, many people recommend the free Hemmingway editor, which help remove unhelpful adverbs, passive voice and in general, helps improve your sentences by making them simpler and easier to read. These features are really useful.

However, recently when I wrote some simple sentences, the editor said they were at Grade 11, when these were simple sentences that even a 7th or 8th grader could understand. So I did a little experiment. I chose sentences from two children's books and checked to see what Hemmingway editor would report.

First book: The call of the wild.

This is a version simplified for children, meant for 3rd, 4th or 5th graders. While most paragraphs showed a “Grade 5” or “Grade 6”, a sentence whose only fault was that it was too long, showed a “Grade 7” difficulty.

Moreover, copying and pasting the same sentence repeatedly, brought the score up to Grade 11. From there, it was not difficult taking it up to Grade 13. This is a serious flaw in the algorithm.

Second book: Chips (story of a rabbit).

This book has very simple sentences meant for children in the 2nd or 3rd grade. While most paragraphs showed grades ranging from “Grade 5” to “Grade 9”, some sentences gave these results:

Oddly, removing a few sentences brought it to Grade 10.

Removing more sentences pushed it to Grade 11.

By repeating the same sentence, I could push it to Grade 14.

I've written to the creators of the editor, showing them these examples. Hope they'd correct it soon. Meanwhile, writers should take the gradation score with a pinch of salt. The editor is still a good method of evaluating your text for the other features it provides.