This handbook is intended to assist new home study directors of education, course writers, instructors, and others interested in home study course development. It contains 13 guides that were each written by practicing home study educators and experts in the correspondence study field and that together cover the complete course development…

Designed to appeal to students who want a short but up-to-date overview, researchers who are interested in a critical appraisal, and consumers who would like to know what leaders in the field think, this collection of articles highlights the changes that have occurred in readability research from the past to the present and makes predictions about…

In 1979, a study was conducted at Palomar College (PC) to measure student reading levels; to determine textbook readability in humanities, science, and vocational education courses; and to make recommendations for adjusting the curriculum and/or screening procedures in order to facilitate increased student success in reading technical content-area…

The study reported in this paper was designed to describe the differences between the reading-difficulty levels of primary textbooks used in first-semester freshman general studies courses and the reading skills of the students enrolled in those courses, and to compare the Flesch Reading Ease Formula with the SMOG Grading Formula. Separate…

Samples of formal business reports and business memos were obtained from MBA students in multiple disciplines. The samples were analyzed in terms of their relative cohesion, concreteness of wording, causal relationships, intentional referencing, and readability. A classification function based on these measures was then used to identify entering…

A group of adult education teachers sought to determine if a readability formula applied to classroom materials provided a match with student reading levels. Cloze tests were used to determine whether students were able to understand the material. In three of the eight samples, the Cloze test showed that the readability test did not accurately…

After reviewing criticisms of the exclusive use of readability formulas to evaluate text difficulty and describing successful efforts to broaden the traditional readability formula approach, this report presents a 20 item checklist for determining text comprehensibility based on four criteria: (1) specific objectives or outcomes expected from the…

The problems arising from treating word and sentence complexity as the direct causes of difficulty in comprehension are surveyed in this paper from the perspective of readability formulas. The basic choices and assumptions made in the development and use of readability formulas are discussed in relation to the larger question of text…

Readability formulas have varied uses. In education they are used to match children's reading ability to the difficulty level of material, select stories and books for classroom use and for individual students' particular needs, select textbooks and other reading materials, aid educational research, and check reading materials of newly literate…

This paper discusses methods of teaching reading in the content areas at the middle school, junior high school, and secondary school levels. If a textbook is to be used, teachers should examine it by administering a readability formula and by checking the book's vocabulary, sentence patterns, and introduction of abstract concepts. To find how well…

The purpose of this paper is to make classroom teachers on all educational levels aware of the limitations of readability formulas and the factors affecting readability that are not accounted for by the readability formulas. delineated in discussions of readability formula assumptions, problems, and limitations. Some of the specific factors that…

Written as an aid for writers of Army narrative training literature, this guidebook emphasizes performance-oriented writing (preparation of literature intended to help someone learn and perform job related tasks). The eight chapters contain extensive examples and illustrations. An introductory chapter discusses why and how the guidebook was…

To aid in the construction of effective task analysis inventories, this technical report discusses: (1) an optimum questionnaire length that adequately covers Marine tasks without unduly fatiguing respondents; (2) procedures for the phrasing of task statements to avoid ambiguities and be understandable to as broad a range of Marines as is…

Discusses possible sources of bias in reading tests used to evaluate science materials. (PEB)

As psychology has recognized the rights of clients and subjects to exercise a rational, voluntary choice about participation in research, assessment, and treatment, the use of written informed consent forms has increased. A sample of 196 psychologists in private practice were mailed questionnaires which examined their use of, and rationale for,…