Discusses the desirability of creating lifelong readers and suggests that the use of formulas to measure the reading levels of books and tests that assign reading levels to students do not help. Offers suggestions for school librarians to encourage reading, including helping students select books through readers' advisory. (LRW)

Reports on two pilot studies conducted in the United Kingdom, one at a university library and one at a public library, that investigated the use of electronic books. Both studies raised concerns regarding the usability of the products and conclude that improvements are needed in terms of portability, readability, and navigability. (LRW)

Discusses the kinds of texts that are appropriate for students at various stages of their reading development and shares criteria for determining the difficulty levels of early reading materials. Lists five general considerations: vocabulary, size and layout of print, predictability, illustration support, and complexity of concepts. (SG)

Intended as a resource of staff-tested activities for two-year college faculty, staff, and administrators, this manual is a compilation of representative materials from training workshops conducted, as a professional development project, to increase instructor skills and knowledge regarding intervention in reading deficiency of postsecondary…

Cosmetology Reading Strategies is one of five instructional guides in the Reading Strategies in Vocational Education Series. Developed to assist teachers working with students considered disadvantaged because of reading deficiency, the guide contains several strategies, suitable for adaptation, specifically related to cosmetology instruction. Each…

Literacy is an issue for many low-income audiences. Using visual information processing theories, the goal was improving readability of a food behavior checklist and ultimately improving its ability to accurately capture existing changes in dietary behaviors. Using group interviews, low-income clients (n = 18) evaluated 4 visual styles. The text…

This article presents a checklist that teachers and other education professionals can use when deciding which instructional materials to include in their content area instruction. The checklist addresses several considerations, such as the learners' prior knowledge, vocabulary levels, and motivation. In addition, characteristics of the text…

This paper addresses the difficulty involved in creating easily understood information. The act of communicating is not complete until the message has been both received and understood by the audience. Messages must always be comprehensible, otherwise they will have no effect. The readability, legibility, and reading value of a graphic message is…

Four studies examined the validity of the "Living Word Vocabulary" (LWV), a corpus of approximately 44,000 alphabetized words with multiple meanings tested at different grade levels. Regressions were performed between the grade level p-values (percentages of students responding correctly to a vocabulary test item) reported by LWV and…

Young adults read not only to experience real-life problems, but also to "escape" from those problems. The two most popular types of novels available to teens are the contemporary realistic problem novel and the formula romance novel. A study examined the incidence of specific adolescent developmental tasks (adolescent problems/concerns)…

The influences of the study of legibility on newspapers are outlined, and some of the consequences of applying science to the visual design of journalism are considered. The science of legibility began by measuring how letters were perceived, and comparing how different designs are read. The legacy of legibility research, which is traced over the…

A study investigated whether or not the global structure of a text influences its readability and how that influence might be related to the already recognized influences of vocabulary and sentence length. The subjects, 250 fourth-grade students in Quebec, each read four texts representing four different structures, four subjects, and two levels…

Cognitive mapping is widely used in elementary schools to create visual representation of text as an aid to learning. Mapping should be used at the secondary level also to facilitate learning of expository text or lectures. In addition to the traditional uses of mapping, it is useful for (1) providing a bridge or prelude to outlining, (2)…

A study examined the readership of state cooperative extension offices' home learning programs--nine series of booklets of information about pregnancy, infant development, and parenting, mailed to parents in ten states to coincide with pregnancy stage and baby's age in months. The reading level of the series varied from sixth to eighth-grade…

This study examined learner preference for different typefaces and vertical spacing or leading in print materials used in independent study university extension courses. For several years, these materials were produced using 12-point Times font on the default leading provided by Microsoft Word 3.0 (approximately 12-point line). A questionnaire…