Readability Analysis Tool (RAT)

What Readability Analysis Tool (RAT) is

Readability Analysis Tool (RAT) checks German text for readability anomalies using configurable rules, in a process likened to finding bug patterns in static code analysis. It accepts .docx files and creates a separate copy with detected issues marked as comments, leaving the original document unchanged. RAT also produces an HTML report containing text statistics, readability formulas, anomalies, and a quality gate that indicates whether text may be too easy or too difficult to understand. Its documented formulas are Flesch and Wiener Sachtextformel. The report can include reading and speaking time, sentence and word counts, averages for words and sentences, common parts of speech, and configured keyword percentages. Users can configure rules and thresholds, and the report records anomalies they decline as false positives or mark as incorporated. RAT runs from the command line using a Java JAR, with configuration and output-directory options. The project lists performance of 40 seconds for 10,000 words, or 50 pages. It is available for Linux and Windows, is licensed under GPLv3, and is free.