Confetti flags. You decide.
A checker can prove a page is mechanically clean. It can't know whether the page answers the reader's question. It can't know whether the page should exist at all. Tools that promise a quality score blur that line. The number creeps into review conversations dressed up as quality. It isn't quality. It's mechanics.
What the standard says
The plain language standard, AS ISO 24495.1:2024, is direct about this. Plain language is about whether readers can find, understand and use a document. The standard puts formulas in their place: readers come first, 'rather than on mechanical measures such as readability formulas'. The formulas still earn their keep. They're just not the point.
That's why Confetti splits the work. The machine holds the mechanics. You hold the judgement.
What the machine holds
Spelling, quotes, dashes, dates and numerals. Heading structure and link text. Hidden verbs, passive patterns, sentences that run long. These checks are deterministic: same input, same answer, every time. A machine does this better than any reviewer, because a machine doesn't tire on page 30. Handing this pile to the tool isn't lowering your standards. It's freeing your attention for the pile that needs it.
What you hold
Four questions no tool can answer:
Does the reader get what they need?
Can they find it?
Can they understand it?
Can they use it?
Those are the standard's 4 principles. They live in your knowledge of the audience, not in the text. Confetti's Checklist walks you through them for each document — as prompts, not verdicts. The last item asks whether someone from your audience has seen the document. No flag will ever substitute for that.
Treat every flag as a question
Confetti flags. It doesn't correct. Some flags deserve a dismissal. The passive that names no actor, because no actor matters. The term of art your readers use daily. The quoted example that breaks a rule on purpose. Dismissing a flag greys it out instead of deleting it. That's deliberate. A greyed flag is a decision on the record — the difference between a page you've checked and a page you've thought about.
Don't chase the number
The year 7 target is a compass, not a finish line. You can reach grade 5 by cutting every nuance a reader needs — and that page fails readers harder than one at grade 10. When a score and your judgement disagree, interrogate both. Sometimes the score has caught a habit you can't see. Sometimes your judgement knows something the formula can't count.
The point
Judgement is the work. It's what your readers need and what clients pay for. The tool exists so you spend less of your attention proving mechanics — and more of it on the questions only you can answer.
Confetti is free and runs in your browser.
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I write these to be used, not just read. Tell me if this wouldn't work in your organisation, and why.