Describes a study in which 245 university students ranked their preferences among typographical variants of typeface, size, emphasis, and interline space in 16 paragraphs. Six references are listed. (CHC)

The author explores problems in technical writing, the editor's role, and the author-editor relationship. He presents a list of basic writing rules to help the technical writer achieve success. These involve subject matter, deadlines, purpose, topic sentences, arrangement, clarity, idea development, examples, vocabulary, reading level, and…

Validates the college-level designation of the Fry Graph using comparative validity data. (AEA)

Discusses factors that psychology professors should consider when selecting a textbook for introductory courses. These include readability, human interest level, comprehensiveness, and authoritative accuracy of the material. (RM)

This study addressed whether students could change their reading rate when presented with two clearly explicated purposes for reading. Results indicated that students could adapt their reading rate to fit different purposes but that passage difficulty affected the degree of flexibility. (Author/GK)

The author's style of writing has implications for the ease with which the written material can be read. Using the Flesch Reading Ease Formula, the mean readability score, the standard deviation, and range are given for 50 parenting books. Discussion suggests how the list might be used by parent educators. (Author)

A study compared the readability level of five categories of project books in 11 states. Using the Dale-Chall readability scale to rate the publications, it was concluded that 75 percent of the basic Unit I publications were above the reading level of 68 percent of the audience. (LRA)

Discusses reasons why lawyers persist in their use of legalese. (PD)

Suggests that social studies teachers use cloze procedure to determine the reading level of materials they use in the classroom. The method consists of excerpting a 300-word passage from the intended text and deleting every fifth word. Students fill in words through attention to context. (Author/KC)

A study was made of the relationships between the number and clarity of mental images reported by college readers and their reported interest, perceived reading ease, and comprehension scores. Imagery ratings were not significantly related to comprehension scores, but for concrete passages they were significantly related to attitude and reading…

Provides a checklist that considers "learnability" factors as well as "understandability" factors to use as an alternative to readability formulas. (MKM)

A high percentage of young people (16-24 years of age) lack essential skills in reading, writing, and arithmetic needed to become workers and citizens. The teaching of reading should be of importance to all educators, not just language arts teachers. (JOW)

Results of three experiments designed to teach sixth grade students to modify difficult formats of math word problems indicated that treatment effects were effective. Large differences in successful problem solution rates were observed in favor of the easier format word problems. (MKM)

Four experiments tested reader reaction to selected newspaper design techniques, including jumps, wraps, type style, and picture size. The results implied that a newspaper striving for the highest overall readership of its stories will get the best results by keeping jumps to a minimum and running larger pictures. (RL)

Discusses study to determine readability levels of materials for the social studies classroom which examine contemporary problems. The Dale-Chall and the Fry readability formulae were used. Reading levels of newspapers, government publications, magazines, and publications of special interest groups are provided in chart form. (KC)