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Readability formulas have even more limitations than Klare discusses

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Janice RedishAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Journal of Computer Documentation (JCD), Volume 24, Issue 3

Pages 132 - 137

https://doi.org/10.1145/344599.344637

Published: 01 August 2000 Publication History

Abstract

A literature review reveals many technical weaknesses of readability formulas (when compared to direct usability testing with typical readers): they were developed for children s school books, not adult technical documentation;they ignore between-reader differences and the effects of content, layout, and retrieval aids on text usefulness; they emphasize countable features at the expense of more subtle contributors to text comprehension.

References

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Charrow, R. P. and Charrow, V. R. (1979). Making legal language understandable: A psycholinguistic study of jury instructions. Columbia Law Review, 79, 1306-1374.

[2]

Dumas, J. S. and Redish, J. C. (1999). A Practical Guide to Usability Testing. Exeter, England: Intellect (revised edition); originally published by Ablex, 1993.

[3]

Duffy, T. M. (1985). Readability formulas: What's the use? In T. M. Dully and R. M. Waller (Eds.), Designing Usable Texts (pp. 113-143). NY: Academic Press.

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Holland, V. M. and Campbell, L. J. (1982). Understanding the language of public documents because readability formulas don't. In R. J. Di Pietro (Ed.), Linguistics and the Professions (pp. 157-171). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

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Hughes, M. (1999). Rigor in usability testing. Technical Communication, 46(4), Fourth Quarter, 488-494.

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Jacobson, M. D., Kirkland, C. E., and Selden, R. W. (1978). An examination of the McCall- Crabbs standard test lessons in reading. Journal of Reading, 22, 224-230.

[7]

Klare, G. R. (1979). Readability Standards for Army- Wide Publications. Fort Benjamin Harrison, IN: U. S. Army Administrative Center.

[8]

Klare, G. R. (1976). A second look at the validity of readability formulas. Journal of Reading Behavior, 8, 129-152.

[9]

Klare, G. R. (1963). The Measurement of Readability. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press.

[10]

Nielsen, J. (1993). Usability Engineering, San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

[11]

Redish, J. C. (1980). Readability. In D. B. Felker (Ed.), Document Design: A Review of the Relevant Research (pp. 69-93). Washington, DC: American Institutes for Research.

[12]

Redish, J. C. and Seizer, J. (1985). The place of readability formulas in technical communication. Technical Communication, 32(4), Fourth Quarter, 46-52.

[13]

Rubin, J. (1994). Handbook of Usability Testing. NY: John Wiley & Sons.

[14]

Schriver, K. A. (1997). Dynamics in Document Design. NY: John Wiley & Sons.

[15]

Seizer, J. (1983). What constitutes a "readable" technical style? In E V. Anderson, J. Brockmann, and C. R. Miller (Eds.), New Essays in Technical and Scientific Communication: Research, Theory, and Practice (pp. 71-89). Farmington, NY: Baywood.

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Readability formulas have even more limitations than Klare discusses

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Published In

cover image ACM Journal of Computer Documentation

ACM Journal of Computer Documentation Volume 24, Issue 3

Aug. 2000

77 pages

ISSN:1527-6805

EISSN:1557-9441

DOI:10.1145/344599

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2000 ACM.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 August 2000

Published in JCD Volume 24, Issue 3

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Cited By

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