Argues that defining design and copy styles helps ensure consistency for the reader (which is the key to readability) and also make life easier for the designer. Discusses several steps to defining styles within various software. Notes that complexity is also possible with styles. (SR)

This report is a guide for the maintainer or developer of the computerized comprehensibility system (CCS), a system that uses techniques and results from artificial intelligence and cognitive psychology to critique the comprehensibility of a technical document. The purpose of this report is to allow the qualified programmer to rapidly understand…

This book is a guide to the evaluation and development of textbooks that focuses on the research on which they are based to the writing of the text. It also explores research into textbook effectiveness and provides an overview of the research in the field. The chapters are: (1) "Respondents' Opinions"; (2) "Evaluation of Textbooks by…

Discusses history of the development of computer software to determine material readability and general design of readability software. Tables present summaries of: (1) parameters used by selected readability scales and their grade level applications; and (2) microcomputer software programs available, including readability techniques included in…

The Flesch readability index yields meaningful information about the responses of readers to texts. Because the formula is so simple, a group of English teachers wrote a program in BASIC that would count some obvious surface features of a text and calculate Flesch scores. Among the programing problems encountered were counting words (taking into…

Advice is offered on making the college or university fact book readable and appealing. Issues discussed include: choice of hardware and software for desktop publishing, balance, layout, use of graphics, typefaces and styles, text alignment, and format. Lists of resources, associations, seminars, and publications that may be useful are appended.…

Noting that the proliferation of computers in the schools requires teachers to know the best ways to use them, this book shows how the computer can be used in a reading and language arts curriculum as tool, tutor, and tutee with currently available software. Chapter one defines the reading process in terms of its relationship to background…