The measurement of readability
George R. Klare · 1 Aug 2000
article Free Access Share on The measurement of readability: useful information for communicators Author: George R. Klare Ohio Univ., The Plains Ohio Univ., The PlainsView Profile Authors Info & Claims ACM Journal of Computer DocumentationVolume 24Issue 3Aug. 2000 pp 107–121https://doi.org/10.1145/344599.344630Published:01 August 2000Publication History 39citation1,993DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations39Total Downloads1,993Last 12 Months210Last 6 weeks28 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert…
Genre ecologies
Clay Spinuzzi, Mark Zachry · 1 Aug 2000
Arguing that current approaches to understanding and constructing computer documentation are based on the flawed assumption that documentation works as a closed system, the authors present an alternative way of thinking about the texts that make computer technologies usable for people. Using two historical case studies, the authors describe how a genre ecologies framework provides…
Readability formulas have even more limitations than Klare discusses
Janice C. Redish · 1 Aug 2000
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…
Readability formulas in the new millennium
Karen A. Schriver · 1 Aug 2000
While readability formulas were intended as a quick benchmark for indexing readabilty, they are inherently unreliable: they depend on criterion (calibration) passages too short to reflect cohesiveness, too varied to support between-formula comparisons, and too text-oriented to account for the effects of lists, enumerated sequences,and tables on text comprehension. But readability formulas did spark decades…
Readability and computer documentation
Gretchen Hargis · 1 Aug 2000
Traditional readability concerns are alive and well, but subsumed within several more recent documentation quality efforts. For example, concerns with interestingness and translatability for global markets, with audience analysis and task sufficiency, and with reader appropriateness of technical text all involve readability, but often in ways not easily measured by any formula.
