Time has unfurled one of the world’s greatest mysteries: No, not the cure for cancer or how to balance the federal budget — the magazine created a standardized ELA test solely for Twitter.
By plugging in any Twitter handle, you can find who tweets at an embarrassingly low third-grade reading level, as opposed to a superbly articulate sixth- (Jimmy Fallon!) or seventh-grade (John McCain!) level.
According to Time’s analysis of 1 million public tweets, 33 percent of tweets test at a fourth-grade level (including Kanye!). Try yours here, then check out our assessment of some celebrity samplings.
Olivia Wilde
https://twitter.com/oliviawilde/status/486527555600920577
Assessment: Where are your commas?
Time Grade: Fifth-grade level
Mindy Kaling
https://twitter.com/mindykaling/status/486601129447272448
Assessment: Are you asking or telling us, Mindy?
Time grade: Fifth-grade level
Lena Dunham
https://twitter.com/lenadunham/status/486852713297506304
Assessment: Perfect (minus the missing period), and we totally agree.
Time grade: Fifth-grade level
Ellen DeGeneres
https://twitter.com/TheEllenShow/status/486912152318386177
Assessment: Good punctuation and use of commas. And it’s funny.
Time grade: Fifth-grade level
Jaden Smith
https://twitter.com/officialjaden/status/485038348755419137
Assessment: Unless this is some weird movie title, starting every word with a capital letter isn’t going to work.
Time grade: Fifth-grade level
Seth Rogen
https://twitter.com/Sethrogen/status/486606861815144448
Assessment: Right; those video loops are loopy.
Time grade: Fifth-grade level
Conan O’Brien
https://twitter.com/ConanOBrien/status/486250606542077952
Assessment: At least he recognizes his mistakes.
Time grade: Fifth-grade level
Rihanna
https://twitter.com/rihanna/status/485519561983152128
Assessment: Hey, it’s slang. She gets a pass.
Time grade: Fourth-grade level
Hillary Clinton
https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/484295213209620480
Assessment: For her clarity, we’ll give Hillary an A+.
Time grade: Sixth-grade level
50 Cent
https://twitter.com/50cent/status/485444099042848769
Assessment: Oh, 50. “Gotta” is not a word and we’re not quite sure what you mean by jive turkeys.
Time grade: Fourth-grade level
