I once heard that The New York Times is written on an eighth-grade reading level and that the Boston Globe is on a fifth-grade level. I have not been able to confirm that, and I suspect it might have been something someone told me to get my very academically competitive elementary-school aged self to read both newspapers.

I've since heard that the Times is at a higher reading level, or maybe a lower one. Or, maybe reading levels are bogus.

I have no idea what reading level the Post is supposed to be at. I suspect it is slightly less snobby than the Times. Still, this line from a relatively complicated science article surprised me:
""If, through a process of melting, they collapse and are submerged in the sea, then we really are talking about sea-level rises of several meters." (A meter is about a yard.)"
(Emphasis mine)

Oh. Really? Thanks. I missed that lesson. Are there really readers who need that reminder? The Post seems to think so.

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Written Pyramids is a blog written by a journalist living and working in Washington D.C.

I have left my real name off of the blog so as not to imply that the blog is somehow linked with the journalism I get paid to do. (Still, I never write about my beat on this blog, and rarely express opinions about the day's news regardless of its relationship to my beat).

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Books pyramid image originally from the British website, Explore Writing.