A set of suggestions the author uses in his graduate/undergraduate writing courses and when acting as a consultant for public and private organizations. (PD)

Research indicates that three samples may not give a good indication of a workbook's narrative readability level. (MKM)

Provides a chart to be used with the Dale-Chall Readability Formula to simplify computation of readability level. (MKM)

Provides tables to be used with the Spache Revised Readability Formula that decrease the number of necessary calculations. (MKM)

Redesigning a school newspaper with a knowledge of the basic rules of layout can deliver new excitement and improved readability to the newspaper. (HOD)

Tested model for writing psychological reports that specified types of data and mode of data presentation most likely to be viewed positively by readers. School psychologists rated comparable sets of statements that might appear in school psychological reports, one set model based and the other not. Respondents rated model-based statements as…

Examines the growth and scope of corporate benefits packages and their usefulness to the average worker. Assesses a sample of benefits packages from Fortune 500 corporations and finds that both the documents' readability and comprehensibility levels are beyond those of the average worker. (MG)

Examines two ways that graphics and graphic techniques can help communicate technical topics visually: by helping readers navigate through a manual; and by helping readers better understand the material in the manual. (SR)

Health-education materials often require reading levels higher than that of many patients. Nurses need awareness of the prevalence of low literacy and the ability to assess reading levels so they can develop appropriate patient-education materials. (SK)

Describes the development of a Spanish version of the Lexile Framework(R) and a Spanish readability equation. Discusses some differences between Spanish and English and how these differences affect the development of the Lexile measures. (SLD)

Presents a system to refine typographic fit in digitally composed documents. Describes strategies for paragraph-fit, page-fit, chapter-fit, and one-page-fit. Concludes that these new uses of microtypography increase speed and quality of document production and make reading easier. (PA)

Patients with third-fifth grade reading ability (n=16) and with higher ability (n=32) completed nursing care satisfaction questionnaires with either a Likert scale, yes/no/uncertain, or pictorial format. Yes/no/uncertain and Likert formats elicited the same information. All patients had difficulty with negatively worded items. (Contains 45…

Indicates that more secondary students were quite uncertain about their textbook clarity. Reveals a need to strengthen textbook readability in United States secondary schools. (RS)

The purpose of this experiment was to examine the effect of web page text/background colour combination on readability, retention, aesthetics, and behavioural intention. One hundred and thirty-six participants studied two Web pages, one with educational content and one with commercial content, in one of four colour-combination conditions. Major…

Finding the right fit between students' reading ability and textbooks is very important for comprehension. Readability studies aim to analyse texts to find the right fit between students and texts. In this literature review, readability studies are classified under quantitative, qualitative and combined quantitative-qualitative readability…