A recently developed readability formula which requires little time and few mathematical computations is explained. (Editor)

Outlines the current uses of readability measures in education, business, and government. (SRT)

Argues that readability formulas accurately predict how easily a passage will be understood by considering sentence length and word difficulty. Claims that the misuse of readability formulas as writing guides is responsible for much of the criticism. Challenges the critics to come up with something better. (RS)

The relative importance of vowels in reading versus the relative importance of consonants was investigated by comparing the scores on the oral reading of a passage from which all vowels had been removed with the scores on the oral reading of the same passage from which all consonants had been removed. Scores for reading the passage with whole…

The validity of Fry's Readability Graph for determining grade level readability scores was compared with the Spache Formula, the cloze technique, and oral reading in the case of seven primary-level books. Descriptions of these four indicated that to determine grade level, Fry's Readability Graph plots the total number of syllables with the total…