Everybody wants to see their child hold a book and read.

Every parent
dreams to have a child whose hobby is flipping through the pages of a good book.
However, the difficulty to attain this arises when the children themselves refuse to
do such activity. What makes it worse is that if the parents force their kids to read, it
may create conflict between them, or maybe cause a negative impression of
reading in minds of their children.
One of the many reasons why kids do not like reading is the inappropriate
level of the books or stories given to them. Most of the time, teachers just rely on
their instincts in choosing the reading material to use to their pupils. For instance,
they will use a particular text in class because it is their favorite, or their own
teacher used it when they were pupils too.
Moreover, some parents do not give special attention to whether their kids
are reading materials appropriate to their level. They dont even check whether the
passages used in school textbooks are comprehensible to their children. This may
create stress in the part of the children, making them hate reading instead of loving
it.
If the concerned people only take serious effort to notice this and take
necessary actions, then maybe there would be more readers than computer-hooked
young individuals. There is a lot of readability formulas available that can somehow
lessen the rate of non-readers. These readability formulas can measure and assign
a grade level to a certain reading material. Examples of these are the Fry Graph,
Raygor Graph, Fog Index and the SMOGOMETER. Among all that was mentioned, the
SMOGOMETER is the easiest and the fastest when it comes to giving instant result.
The term SMOGOMETER came from the word SMOG which stands for Simple
Measure of Gobbledy Gook. In other words this readability formula uses gobbledy

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gook variables a speech or writing that is hard to understand because it is full of

big words and long, involved sentences for it to work.
It was published and developed in 1969 by G. Harry Maclaughlin at the
University of Syracuse, where he worked as a professor, to predict the readability of
text intended for Grade 4 and above levels only. It uses polysyllabic words (words
with three or more syllables) in identifying the level of the material. Using the
SMOGOMETER developed by George H. McGinnis, it is now easier and faster to
arrive at the smog with less chance of error.
As mentioned earlier, this readability formula is the easiest because it
involves only few repetitive steps. Unlike the Fry Graph and Raygor which require
the user to count words, sentences, syllables and get their averages, the
SMOGOMETER only counts the polysyllables and compare it to the given table.
The first step of this reading level indicator is for the user to select three
parts from the text with a maximum of ten sentences for each part (30 sentences all
in all) to use as samples. These chunks must be taken from the beginning, middle
and end of the text. Then the polysyllables from the three chunks will be counted.
The total number of polysyllables present in all of the samples will then be referred
to the SMOGOMETER.

THE SMOGOMETER
(George McGinnis, 1982)
Total No. of
Polysyllables

SMOG
Grade

Total No. of
Polysyllables

SMOG
GRADE

183 up

College & Up

43 56

10

157 182

16

31 42

133 156

15

21 30

111 132

14

13 20

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91 110

13

7 12

73 90

12

36

57 72

11

12

In order to get a clearer picture on how to use the formula, we will try to
perform it using the story entitled Two Were Left written by Hugh Cave. Using the
SMOGOMETER, we will try to identify the grade level of the story. The full length
copy of the story is provided below.

It was the third night of hunger. No one was on the floating island except the
two of them. In the break-up, Noni had lost everything, even his knife. He had saved
only Nimuk, his devoted husky. They looked warily at each other and stayed away
from each other.
Noni loved Nimuk very much. But men killed dogs when food was scarce. And
Nimuk, when hungry enough, would seek food, too. Soo
Noni unstrapped the brace from his leg. He hurt his leg a few weeks before.
So he had this brace. He took bits of the harness and two thin strips of iron from the
brace. He inserted one of the iron strips into a crack in the ice, and rubbed the
other iron strip against it. Nimuk watched Noni.
The piece of iron soon began to take shape. Noni pulled the finished knife
from the ice and thumbed its edge. The suns glare reflected from it.
Here, Nimuk. He called softly. The dog watched suspiciously. Come here,
Noni called.
Nimuk came closer. Noni read fear in the dogs gaze. He read hunger and
suffering in the dogs heavy breathing and awkward dragging movement. His heart

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wept. He hated himself. He cursed the knife, swayed it blindly, and flung it far from
him. With hands outstretched, he stumbled toward the dog and fell.
Nimuk snarled as he wearily circled Nonis body. Noni was sick with fear. He
had left himself defenseless. Nimuk circled him and crept up from behind. Noni
heard Nimuks growl. He closed his eyes and prayed that the attack would be swift.
He felt Nimuks breath rushing against his neck. Noni wanted to scream!
Then he felt Nimuks hot tongue caressing his face. Noni opened his eyes.
Crying softly, he thrust out an arm and drew Nimuks head against his own.
A plane came an hour later. The pilot saw the floating floe and something
flashing. It was the sun shining on something shiny. He circled the flow and saw two
dark shapes.
He set his plane on the water and investigated. The two shapes were a boy
and a dog. The boy was unconscious but alive. The dog whined feebly but was too
weak to move. The gleaming object which caught the pilots attention was a
roughly-made knife. It was stuck in the ice a little distance away and was quivering
in the wind.

The user selects ten sentences in the beginning of the sentence. In counting
the sentences, the user must remember that only sentences punctuated with a
period, a question mark or an exclamation point shall be included. In the case of the
story, the excerpt below would be the 10-sentence sample found in the beginning of
the text.

It was the third night of hunger.(1) No one was on the floating island except
the two of them.(2) In the break-up, Noni had lost everything, even his knife.(3) He

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had saved only Nimuk, his devoted husky.(4) They looked warily at each other and
stayed away from each other.(5)
Noni loved Nimuk very much.(6) But men killed dogs when food was scarce.
(7) And Nimuk, when hungry enough, would seek food, too.(8) So
Noni unstrapped the brace from his leg.(9) He hurt his leg a few weeks
before.(10)

Notice that the So after sentence number eight was not counted as part
of the ten sentences because it does not end with the punctuation mark that was
specified. Instead, it ends with an ellipsis.
After identifying the ten sentences in the beginning of the story, the
polysyllables will now be identified and counted. In this sample, our polysyllables
are the words everything, devoted, and warily. The user must also remember that
polysyllables that appear more than once in a sample shall still be counted. Proper
nouns that are also polysyllabic shall also be tallied. So, the total number of
polysyllables in the beginning sample is three (3).
The same procedure will be followed for the middle and end of the text
samples. Again, a ten-sentence sample from the middle part of the text will be
identified.

Nimuk came closer.(1) Noni read fear in the dogs gaze.(2) He read hunger
and suffering in the dogs heavy breathing and awkward dragging movement.(3)
His heart wept.(4) He hated himself.(5) He cursed the knife, swayed it blindly, and
flung it far from him.(6) With hands outstretched, he stumbled toward the dog and
fell.(7)

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Nimuk snarled as he wearily circled Nonis body.(8) Noni was sick with fear.
(9) He had left himself defenseless.(10)

When choosing the sample, it is safer to really take it from the middle part.
For instance, if it is a book that is being assessed, the user may count the number of
pages and divide it by two. The answer will determine what page the user shall take
the sample. In this part of the text, there are also three polysyllables present. They
are the words suffering, wearily and defenseless.
Finally, the sample from the end of the selection will then be assessed. In
identifying this part, it is safer to begin counting from the very last sentence of the
entire selection going back so that sample is surely taken from the end part of the
text.
The sample of this part contains a word that is combined by a hyphen. If this
is the case, the word that is combined by a hyphen is considered one word and shall
also be counted as long as it is polysyllabic.

A plane came an hour later.(10) The pilot saw the floating floe and something
flashing.(9) It was the sun shining on something shiny.(8) He circled the flow and
saw two dark shapes.(7)
He set his plane on the water and investigated.(6) The two shapes were a
boy and a dog.(5) The boy was unconscious but alive.(4) The dog whined feebly but
was too weak to move.(3) The gleaming object which caught the pilots attention
was a roughly-made knife.(2) It was stuck in the ice a little distance away and was
quivering in the wind.(1)

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The polysyllables in the last sample are investigated, unconscious, attention,

roughly-made and quivering. Five polysyllables are present in the end sample of the
text.
These polysyllables in all samples will be then added. Please, refer to the
table below.
Sample Part of the
Text
Beginning

Polysyllabic Words

everything, devoted, warily

suffering, wearily,
Middle
defenseless
investigated, unconscious,
End
attention, roughly-made,
quivering
TOTAL NUMBER OF POLYSYLLABLES

Total
3
3
5
11

The total number of polysyllables in the entire samples is eleven. The result
will be then compared to the SMOGOMETER. Review the column for the number of
polysyllables and determine which given range covers the result. In this case the
given range 7 12 caters the result of our total number of polysyllables. Alongside
the column of the total number of polysyllables is the SMOG grade column which
will tell the grade level of the text. Based on the readability formula that was
utilized, the story TWO WERE LEFT is recommended for readers who are in the level
of Grade 6.

THE SMOGOMETER
(George McGinnis, 1982)
Total No. of
Polysyllables
183 up
157 182
133 156
111 132
91 110
73 90
57 72

SMOG
Grade
College & Up
16
15
14
13
12
11

Total No. of
Polysyllables
43 56
31 42
21 30
13 20
7 12
36
12

SMOG
GRADE
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
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This readability formula can be performed by anyone even by those who are
not reading specialists or in the teaching profession. Parents can also do this at
home to screen the reading materials they will give to their children. Through this,
the possibility of terrorizing the child by exposing them to gobbledy gook materials
may lessen. Rather, this may help in building a nation of readers who will soon
become leaders.

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