sentence ladder / band 9-11 · free workflow
See Which Sentences Push a Passage Past Its Reading Level — Free
Put each sentence on its own line and the ladder places it on the rung its own structure reaches, so the two or three sentences doing the damage are named instead of a passage average.
What this replaces
A readability tool returns one number for the whole passage, which tells you a problem exists and nothing about where. This places every sentence on a rung and names the word that put it there, so the rewrite is a specific job on two or three lines.
Tool note. This runs entirely in your browser — no account, no upload, no paid API key. Google NotebookLM is named as the free source-grounded reading path for the material you paste; its published free-tier terms were checked on 2026-09-13 and can change.
The four passes
Collect the smallest useful input
One sentence per line, from the passage you want to bring down.
Let the ladder place each one
Every sentence gets a rung and the construction that earned it.
Rewrite the top rungs first
Those sentences are carrying most of the difficulty.
Rerun after the rewrite
The highest rung should drop; if it does not, the rewrite added length elsewhere.
Try it on the sentence ladder / band 9-11
The board below runs in your browser. It opens with a worked sample so the result is visible before you paste anything; switch scenarios, edit the text, or reset to the sample.
running the sample…
first-load · sample values are illustrative, not verified facts
Everything you paste stays in this browser tab. Nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and no request leaves the page to generate the result; clearing site data removes anything saved locally.
What breaks, and what to do
Whole paragraph on one line
It is read as one sentence; split them onto separate lines.
Technical terms that are necessary
The ladder only flags structure; keep a term if the subject needs it.
Dialogue and fragments
Short fragments land below the first rung and are usually fine.
Go deeper — Sentence Ladder
The free board above is the whole loop. The paid tier keeps the arranged output so you do not rebuild it.
- Printable ladder with each sentence beside its rewrite slot — estimate: 11 minutes saved per passage, basis: 6 sentences re-copied at ~110 seconds each
- Saved local history across drafts — estimate: 5 minutes saved per revision, basis: re-splitting a 6-sentence passage into lines
$4 one-time