G Harry McLaughlin
created the SMOG Readability Formula in 1969 through an article, SMOG Grading – A New Readability Formula in the Journal of Reading. SMOG Readability Formulaestimates the years of education a person needs to understand a piece of writing. McLaughlin created this formula as an improvement over other readability formulas. You may come across SMOG as an acronym for Simple Measure of Gobbledygook, but it’s widely believed the title is a nod to Robert Gunning’s FOG Index.