Examines bias in testing, especially in relation to the goals of reading. (RB)

Children rated books they had read; the more recently a book was read the more likely it was to be rated as enjoyable. The findings are discussed with reference to the problems of teachers and librarians who select books for children. (Editor)

Evaluates 24 introductory college textbooks in human and regional geography in light of their presentation of traditional approaches and contemporary research themes and assesses their reading level. Findings show that many approaches to introducing knowledge are used, information presented lags behind current research, and reading levels are…

To show that in their elementary school years, American students read many pages of inconsiderate text, a segment from a sixth grade social studies textbook is analyzed. Criteria used to determine considerateness are structure, coherence, unity, and audience appropriateness. (RM)

Reports that the readability level of a document is a poor indicator of its comprehension for aged subjects and that simplifying the language of documents may not be sufficient in easing their comprehension difficulties. (FL)

A BASIC program is given that can calculate the approximate grade level of reading materials. (MK)

Presents a computerized readability scoring system that allows for the calculation and comparison of several formulas with no corresponding increase in teacher effort. (FL)

Offers a worksheet for evaluating the readability of content area textbooks. (RL)

Identifies several reasons why children do not enjoy reading, including rote learning, unjustified reduction in number of words contained in primers, patronizing of the reader, unnatural sentence structure, and teacher dominance. Describes a Swiss reading program as an example of a better alternative to American primers. (DC)

Suggests that the popular and simple readability formulas may not be accurate enough to predict the instructional materials best suited to the reading abilities of secondary school students. (FL)

From her experiences as a writing consultant, the author gives examples of ways to motivate clients to improve their writing skills. (PD)

Discusses the method used for rewriting a piece of technical text to improve readability, compares several readability measures of the revised text, and notes difficulties encountered in the study. (CHC)

Small graphic changes made in normal letters of the alphabet changed the similarity relations among those letters. Children and adults classified letters of this distinctive font faster and with fewer errors than they did normal letters. Relations between letters in the stimulus set determined how difficult any particular letter was to classify.…