Methods and sources

How the site works

Every tool runs entirely in your browser. There is no account, no server-side processing, and nothing you type or paste is transmitted. Each tool page shows a worked default result that is already in the page before any script runs, then recalculates as you type. The one tool that keeps anything is the writing sprint timer: it saves your draft and your sprint log in your browser's local storage, on your device only, so a reload or a crash does not lose your writing. The privacy page describes exactly what the site does and does not collect.

Who makes it and how pages are checked

AskWorm is an independent site run by one person who reads and writes a lot and got tired of tools that hid their assumptions. There is no publisher or sponsor behind it. Each tool is tested against hand-worked examples before it goes live (the worked examples on each page are those checks), and a page's figures are re-checked whenever its method changes. Pages that change often show a "last reviewed" date.

Reading speed: Brysbaert (2019)

Used by the reading time calculator, the word counter, the pages per day calculator and the reading goal calculator. The preset speeds are the central estimates from Marc Brysbaert, "How many words do we read per minute? A review and meta-analysis of reading rate", Journal of Memory and Language 109 (2019), which pooled 190 studies of adult readers of English:

• Silent reading, non-fiction: 238 words per minute (most adults about 175–300)
• Silent reading, fiction: 260 words per minute (about 200–320)
• Reading aloud: 183 words per minute (about 167–203)

The "slow" (175) and "fast" (300) presets are the ends of the non-fiction silent range, not separate research figures. Where it drifts: the estimates are for adults reading ordinary prose in their first language. Technical text, study reading, a second language or a reading difficulty can all mean a much lower speed, which is why every tool that uses a speed lets you choose one.

Speaking pace

The word counter offers three speaking paces: 120, 140 and 160 words per minute. These are round figures spanning common delivery styles, not research estimates; speaking rate varies too much between people and occasions for a single figure to be meaningful. The page says so and suggests timing a rehearsal to find your own.

Counting words, sentences and syllables

The word counter and readability checker share one counting routine. A word is a run of characters separated by whitespace or an em dash that contains at least one letter or digit. A sentence ends at . ? ! or … followed by a space or line end, except after common abbreviations and single initials. A paragraph is a non-empty line.

Syllables are estimated from spelling by counting vowel groups, after removing a silent final e and the -es and -ed endings that do not usually add a syllable. This is the standard approach in software readability tools. Where it drifts: it is off by one on some words (created, beautiful), and it works only for English spelling.

Writing sprints

The writing sprint timer counts the draft with the same routine as the word counter, once when the sprint starts and again as you write. Words added is the difference: words now − words at the start. Deleting words lowers it, and a sprint spent cutting can end below zero. Words that arrive by pasting are counted from the pasted text and shown separately.

Words per minute is (words added − pasted words) ÷ writing minutes, so pasting in a chapter does not read as a burst of speed. Paused time is not writing time. No figure is shown for the first ten seconds, when one word would read as a nonsense pace.

The timer is worked out from the time the sprint started, not by counting ticks, so a reload, a sleeping laptop or a background tab cannot make it drift. A sprint is filed under the local calendar day on which it started, fixed at the moment it is logged, so a sprint from 23:50 to 00:15 counts for the first day, and travelling across time zones does not move old sprints. A streak is the number of days in a row with at least one sprint; it stays alive through today until midnight. Where it drifts: text written outside the editor is not counted, and moving text around inside the draft counts as nothing added.

Readability formulas

The readability checker shows six formulas side by side, because they disagree and none is authoritative. W = words, S = sentences, Sy = syllables.

• Flesch Reading Ease (Flesch, 1948): 206.835 − 1.015(W/S) − 84.6(Sy/W)
• Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (Kincaid et al., 1975): 0.39(W/S) + 11.8(Sy/W) − 15.59
• Gunning Fog (Gunning, 1952): 0.4[(W/S) + 100 × complex/W], complex = three or more syllables, not counting -es, -ed or -ing
• SMOG (McLaughlin, 1969): 1.043 √(polysyllables × 30/S) + 3.1291
• Coleman-Liau (Coleman and Liau, 1975): 0.0588L − 0.296S₁₀₀ − 15.8, per 100 words
• Automated Readability Index (Senter and Smith, 1967): 4.71(letters/W) + 0.5(W/S) − 21.43

Where they drift: all six measure only sentence length and word length. They cannot judge meaning, familiarity of vocabulary, or layout. They are unstable on samples under about 100 words, and SMOG was designed for 30 sentences; with fewer, its count is scaled up. Gunning's exclusions for proper nouns and compound words are not applied. All six were fitted to English.

Words per page

The words to pages converter uses these figures. The manuscript figure of 250 words per page is a long-standing publishing convention for 12-point, double-spaced text with 1-inch margins. The others are typical values for each layout, with ranges. None of them is a standard, and the page shows the range for every format rather than one number.

• Standard manuscript (double-spaced): 250 (range 225–275). 12 pt Times New Roman or Courier, double-spaced, 1-inch margins, Letter or A4.
• Document, 1.5-spaced: 350 (range 320–380). 12 pt Times New Roman, 1.5 line spacing, 1-inch margins.
• Document, single-spaced: 500 (range 450–550). 12 pt Times New Roman, single-spaced, 1-inch margins.
• Trade paperback: 300 (range 250–350). Typical of a 5.5 × 8.5 inch novel set in 11–12 pt type.
• Hardcover (6 × 9 inch): 350 (range 300–400). Larger trim size; common for non-fiction and literary hardbacks.
• Mass-market paperback: 300 (range 250–375). Small 4.25 × 6.87 inch format, usually set tighter than a trade paperback.
• Large print: 180 (range 150–220). 16 pt type or larger.

Story length categories are those used by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association for the Nebula Awards: short story under 7,500 words, novelette 7,500–17,499, novella 17,500–39,999, novel 40,000 and over.

Audiobook speed

The audiobook speed calculator divides length by playback speed; nothing else is assumed. The approximate words-per-minute column uses 155 words per minute at 1×, the rate implied by ACX's production estimate of about 9,300 words per finished hour of narration. Where it drifts: narrators vary, and apps that trim silences save extra time that is not included.

Goal pacing

The pages per day, reading goal and writing goal calculators are division with the calendar handled carefully:

• Dates are handled as calendar days in UTC, so time zones and daylight-saving changes cannot move a deadline. Leap years have 366 days.
• A deadline or finish date counts today as a working day and the deadline day itself as not.
• Daily targets are rounded up, so following them finishes on time rather than slightly short.
• The reading goal compares books finished with an even pace through the year: goal × days passed ÷ days in year. The year-end projection is shown only after 14 days, because before then it swings too much to mean anything.
• The writing goal converts calendar days to writing days as days × writing days per week ÷ 7, rounded to the nearest day. This is an average; the exact count depends on which weekday you start.

Where they drift: they assume steady progress. Real reading and writing are uneven, books vary in length, and a book half-read counts as unread until it is finished.

Corrections

If something here is wrong, please say so. The formulas and figures are stated above so that they can be checked.