This is a simple adaptation of the excellent Lingua::EN::Fathom Perl Module. This module analyzes English text in either a string or file. Totals are then calculated for the number of characters, words, sentences, blank and non blank (text) lines and paragraphs. For more information, see this developer.gnome.org reference on usability-readability, this Colorado State University article and the definitive Wikipedia article on the Flesch-Kincaid Readability test. Three common readability statistics are also derived, the Fog, Flesch and Kincaid indices.
This is a simple call to the style program, one of two GNU-adapted old UNIX standards useful to writers. The other program is called diction; it gives suggestions on how to improve the text readability. See the man page.
This tool has been used 3131 times. As long as this service is not overused or abused, it will continue to be provided. The script simply computes the necessary statistic; the analyzed text is retrieved, analyzed and discarded.
If you find this tool useful, please let me know. Thanks. Ok, you may return to your regularly scheduled program (nanowrimo)