I do however remember that the key factors counted were:
- number of passive constructions
- average number of words per sentence
- number of words of three or more syllables (as percent of total words, I think)

I was involved in putting together an educational pamphlet for our patients a couple of years ago. Each professional wrote their piece and then it was group edited so that it all fit together. The use of medical and academic jargon is a pet peeve of mine and the committee got so used to my insistance on simplifying the language that they started to refer to a piece as having been Carol-ized.