Explores the influence of captions on acquisition of pictorial information and two types of verbal information by hearing-impaired viewers. Findings indicated that the pictorial aspect of the material neither hindered nor enhanced learning; however, the language level of captions can affect performance of certain tasks. Twenty references are…

Sixty-one psychology textbooks were analyzed according to four criteria: student acceptance and interest, readability and human interest, comprehensiveness and size, and psychobiological content. This analytic approach can be used in all subjects to match text selection with course objectives in order to increase student satisfaction. (AM)

A study that examined correspondence from 15 different business areas found the writing of that correspondence to be at a reading level higher than the average educational level of U.S. citizens. (LRA)

Shows how practical problems in readability can be solved. Provides an example: an office of student financial assistance form, before and after revision. (PD)

Discusses literature readability in foreign language classrooms. Gives results of study stressing use of predictive statistical device to determine difficulty students will encounter when reading specific literary texts. Suggests linguistic complexity of a text affects accessibility, comprehensibility, and enjoyability, and this should be looked…

Five informal reading inventories and one standardized test containing graded reading passages were reviewed to determine their readability estimates. (HOD)

Presents excerpts from institutional publications to demonstrate the pompous and overly complicated nature of the prose used in college catalogs. Suggests that reading specialists analyze and revise catalogs so that they will be understood by the average high school student. (JP)

Describes a study designed to determine the order of introduction of the common phoneme-grapheme correspondences needed for use in decoding written words in the elementary grades. Includes tables showing the order of introduction of vowel and diphthong phonemes and of consonant phonemes, and presents a teaching hierarchy for introduction of…

Responds to doubts raised in the preceding article about the author's readability graph. Defends the orthodoxy of the procedures used to develop the graph and presents data showing that it correlates quite well with the other formulas on first- and second-grade materials and is just a little high on third- grade materials. (ET)

Reviews the literature and examines the state of technology for computer based text analysis. The computer capabilities of several available text analysis programs are presented. (Author)

The author criticizes the old standard collection's disdain for such contemporary needs as readability and variety of appeal. (Editor/SJL)

Concludes that United States federal application forms for health and income related programs frequently use words unfamiliar to the aged applicants. (DD)

Indexes 68 reading series or supplementary reading materials by 29 publishing companies and indicates which of them are at the same readability level. (DD)

This article describes a study to determine the readability of selected patient education materials using the cloze procedure adapted from the Gestalt concept of closure. (JMF)

Examining the reading level of two series of high school physics texts widely used between 1954 and 1976, this study indicates that the reading level of these two texts did increase during the 1960s while at the same time there was a decline in overall reading ability as reflected by SAT scores. (JC)