Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score comes out 0.0

[Virtual Sidekick]

I need to find the grade level score for a document that should be at a
Kindergarten level. When i check the document, it comes out Flesch-Kincaid of
0.0. (Other documents of this type I've checked come out numbers such as 0.7
for the reading level.)

Any idea how I can get it to give me a reading? I have reset the grammar and
spelling check to recheck the document, but it makes no difference.

Thanks!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

0.0 sounds like what you're shooting for.

 

[Jezebel]

Word doesn't give a value under various mysterious and undocumented
conditions. The Flesch-Kincaid algorithm is based on sentences -- which may
be why Word won't analyse documents that contain a large proportion of
non-sentence matter.

 

[Virtual Sidekick]

This may be... HOWEVER, the text has complete sentences. (Here is a sample.)
Any other ideas?

“You look sad, Tab the Crab,†said Pam the Clam. “Are you sad?â€
“Yes, I am sad,†said Tab the Crab. “I drive a cab. My cab is drab.â€
“Why is your cab drab?†asked Pam the Clam.
“My cab is drab. It has no color,†said Tab the Crab. “My drab cab makes me
sad.â€
“I am not sad. I am happy!†Pam the Clam said. “I am going to a party!â€
“No one is sad at a party,†said Tab the Crab.
“Come to the party with me,†Pam the Clam said.
“Thank you! I would like to go to the party with you,†said Tab the Crab.
“We will both go to the party,†Pam the Clam said.
“I will drive us in my cab,†said Tab the Crab. “Grab my cab! Get on board!â€
Tab the Crab and Pam the Clam got on board.

 

[Jezebel]

Your text in this case really does have a Flesch-Kincaid score of zero. FK
is only an estimate of something not finitely quantifiable: the estimates
are bound to be dubious at the extremes.