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Reading speed varies enormously between people and topics. 238 words per minute is a widely cited adult average for non-technical English, but a dense technical piece is read far more slowly.
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How to use it
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Pick a reading speed
238 words per minute is the adult average for non-technical English.
Check the sentence length
Above 25 words on average, readers start losing the thread.
How the calculation works
Reading time is word count divided by words per minute. The default of 238 comes from research on adult silent reading of non-technical prose, and it is the figure most publishing tools use.
Speaking time is calculated separately at 130 words per minute, which is a comfortable presentation pace. The gap between the two surprises people: a five minute read is a nine minute talk.
The average sentence length check is the most useful part for anyone editing. It is a mechanical signal for a problem that is hard to see in your own writing.
What this calculator does not do
Reading speed varies enormously between people and topics. A dense technical piece is read far more slowly than a news article.
It counts words, not comprehension. A short piece full of unfamiliar terms takes longer than the figure suggests.
Sentence counting uses terminal punctuation, so abbreviations and decimals can skew it slightly on heavily technical text.
Questions
What is the average reading speed?
Around 238 words per minute for adults reading non-technical English silently. Skimming runs nearer 300, careful reading nearer 200.
How long should an article be?
As long as the subject needs. Under 300 words rarely covers anything properly; over 3,000 often means padding.
Why is speaking time so much longer?
Comfortable speech runs around 130 words per minute, roughly half silent reading speed. Scripts always run longer than they look.
What sentence length should I aim for?
Fifteen to twenty words on average. Above 25 and readers start having to re-read.
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