Writers with poor vocabulary tend to use the same words many times in any writing. Such is the case of school children, learners of a new language and illiterate people.
The Unique Word Ratio is: Number of different words in a text / total number of words
Synonymizing is a good solution to increase the Unique Word Ratio. Good synonym choice will help you increase the reading level (readability) of your text to the intended audience.
Simple English uses short words. Academic or technical English tends to use more Latin-derived words. Again, synonym replacement can provide long words and increase reading level (readability), not necessarily to make the text more difficult, but more specific and focused.
Examples:
smart - intelligent
fancy - elegant
whore - prostitute
nice - beautiful
evil - malicious
If your text has a very low index, it could be to childish or simple-worded. You can use synonyms in order to improve it. Also, you can arrange the words in longer sentences.
If your text has a very high index, equivalent to a higher reading level or readability, consider using shorter words. Split your sentences in 2. Low reading level does not imply cheap writing.
The same arguments about smart use of synonym words apply.
Author
Title |
Total word count |
Unique word count | Unique
word ratio
ARI |
Coleman Liau |
Average word length |
Einstein |
1049 |
482 |
0.46 |
15.47 |
|
Melville |
2111 |
1014 |
0.48 |
10.83 |
|
Burroughs |
630 |
347 |
0.55 |
19.79 |
|
Me |
1773 |
778 |
0.44 |
8.96 |
Comment: As expected, Einstein is not very readable. Burroughs and Melville follow. I tend to use few, long words in short sentences, as most foreign English speakers.
NY Times, article
Kincaid: 6.2 |
PC World, article
Kincaid: 10.6 |
Whitehouse Press Release
Kincaid: 4.1 |
Intuitive.com home page
Kincaid: 9.7 |
ESPN.Go.com article
Kincaid: 12.3 |
Nickelodean Home Page
Kincaid: 4.0 |