I often wonder if the way I write or what I write gives a clear indication of my age. Don't look!

You looked, didn't you. Anyway, what triggered my curiosity was a word processing application, it-which-shall-not-be-named, that provides two readability scores when "checking" grammar.

One of them is the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Score. Based on the number of syllables per word and words per sentence, it provides a school grade equivalent. If this entry received an 8.0, a person with an 8th grade education would supposedly be able to read and understand what I wrote.

I think it's very difficult to ascertain a person's age from only his or her writing. Pop culture references may be useful in narrowing down the age range. Based on reasoning or grammar, one could guess if the author is well-read and highly educated. Emotional responses or insights might be a clue as to the author's maturity level. Yet, intellect and emotional maturity can be completely independent of one's age.

It would be nice if there was an application add-in that could simply analyze a piece of writing and determine the author's age. For example...

"Upon analysis, the author has an intellectual age of 18 and the emotional maturity of a 16 year old. These two indicators, along with the Harry Potter and Blink-182 references, are typical of a freshman in high school."

That would be interesting.

My friends say I should act my age.
What's my age again?