The relationships between reading interest and reading comprehension were studied through the performances of 578 sixth-grade students divided into seven ability groups. Each group was required to read material with readability scores two grades higher than the group's mean reading ability. They rated the selections according to degrees of…

This study determined readability levels of 149 selected free or inexpensive career-education publications from a list in the "Educator's Index of Free Materials." Analyses based on the Dale-Chall readability formula indicated that the majority of the materials were written at the college level. An extensive appendix summarizes the content and…

This study of the reading process was written by a librarian for other librarians in order to explore what happens as the end result of the librarian's job, the meeting of a person and a book. A model of the reading act is constructed which makes the reader the subject rather than the receiver, as in the communications model of "transmitter…

The purpose of this monograph is to provide a basic discussion of the general nature of syntactic complexity. The monograph describes how the rules of language produce syntax and raises some questions about reading difficulty. The contents include: "Arrangement," which discusses 12 basic sentence types, noun determiners, verb expansions, negative…

This paper contains a historical review of the literature pertaining to American popular literature and analysis of two different samples of adult fiction on best sellers, one an analysis of readability levels and one an analysis of the portrayal of female characters. In the first analysis the Fry Readability Formula was applied to each of 60…

This study explored the validation of a criterion or reference score for determining the adequacy of any individual's cloze score. The hypothesis tested in this research was that a cloze preformance of 40 percent on materials ranging in difficulty from grades 4 to 8 will predict a 75 percent criterion level of reading comprehension based on a…

An investigation was made to determine the levels of readability of representative works of prose fiction by contemporary American authors. Authors were selected on the basis of their appearing in the "Modern Language Association International Bibliography of Books and Articles" for the years 1958-1967. Authors appearing there were…

The purpose of this study is to survey research literature concerning the use of the cloze procedure and to determine what is known about the procedure. The survey proceeds in three broad areas: (1) methodological considerations, (2) cloze as a measuring device, and (3) cloze as a teaching technique. It is concluded that cloze based on every…

Presents data on the readability of periodicals and textbooks commonly used by students studying school agriculture. (GS)

Finds that teaching textbooks are becoming more complex and difficult, and less interesting. A procedure is suggested for measuring these qualities in a textbook, based on the "Reading Ease" and "Human Interest" indices of R. Flesh, in Volume 6 of his work "The Good Companion". Two samples from texts are appended. (IFS/WGA)

The readability of three popular texts for the 14-16 age range was estimated by three different measures. Comprehension tests of material from the books (cloze tests) were given to 100 secondary school biology pupils. The results confirmed that the texts presented serious problems of comprehension for some pupils. (Author/MA)

Discusses points relevant to the improvement of reading in the industrial arts curriculum such as individual differences in learners, reading levels, readability, methods, and activity oriented experiences. (TA)

Compares nine basic reporting texts with regard to such items as chapter length, presence or absence of a glossary, reading ease, human interest, and treatment of sexism in language. (GW)

Reports the findings of a study of the validity of six common assumptions concerning the readability of basal readers. Concludes that if teachers had access to reasonably complete information about the readability properties of basal readers and workbooks, improved reading instruction would result. (JM)