4-page handout explains the use, benefits, & limitations of MS Word’s Readability tool within its Spell/Grammar checker; shows how simpler language is more understandable and your ideas become more marketable; includes examples from politics and elsewhere. Handout only briefly touches on related style issues beyond the scope of such a mechanistic analysis, but at least it’s a quantifiable start to improving one’s writing—especially for writers who mistake academic verbosity for clarity. Upda