Testing a readable writing approach to text revision.

Duffy, Thomas M.; Kabance, Paula

doi:10.1037/0022-0663.74.5.733

Cited by 60 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 18 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…With the rise of the plain-language movement in the 1960s, several critics of the formulas claimed that the formulas do not test comprehensibility (Kern 1979, Duffy and Kabance 1981, Duffy 1985. The history of the formulas, however, shows that from the beginning their scores correlate well with comprehension difficulty as measured by reading tests.…”

Section: Other Early School Formulasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…W. Patty and W. I. Painter (1931) discovered the year of highest burden in high school is the sophomore year. They also developed a formula to measure the relative difficulty of textbooks based on a combination of frequency as determined by the Thorndike list and vocabulary diversity (the number of different words in a text).With the rise of the plain-language movement in the 1960s, several critics of the formulas claimed that the formulas do not test comprehensibility (Kern 1979, Duffy and Kabance 1981, Duffy 1985. The history of the formulas, however, shows that from the beginning their scores correlate well with comprehension difficulty as measured by reading tests.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Measuring translation difficulty

Sun

Shreve

2014

Target

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Principles of Readability gives a brief introduction to the literacy studies in the U.S. and the research on readability and the readability formulas. Readers' CommentsPlease send all comments and suggestions regarding this document to:William RESEARCH SummaryOver 80 years of research and testing have contributed to the worldwide use in many languages of the readability formulas.They help us improve the text on the level of words and sentences, the first causes of reading difficulty.The principles of readability are in every style manual. Readability formulas are in every word processor. What is missing is the research and theory on which they stand. The Principles of ReadabilityWilliam H. DuBay IntroductionIn 1998, traffic accidents caused 46 percent of all accidental deaths of infants and children aged 1 to 14 (National Center for Health Statistics, 2000). One study (Johnston et al. 1994) showed that the single strongest risk factor for injury in a traffic accident is the improper use of child-safety seats. Another study (Kahane 1986) showed that, when correctly used, child safety seats reduce the risk of fatal injury by 71 percent and hospitalization by 67 percent.To be effective, however, the seats must be installed correctly. Other studies, showed that 79 to 94 percent of car seats are used improperly (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 1996, Decina and Knoebel 1997, Lane et al. 2000.Public-health specialists Dr. Mark Wegner and Deborah Girasek (2003) suspected that poor comprehension of the installation instructions might contribute to this problem. They looked into the readability of the instructions and published their findings in the medical journal Pediatrics. The story was covered widely in the media.The authors referred to the National Adult Literacy Study (National Center for Educational Statistics, 1993), which states the average adult in the U.S. reads at the 7 th grade level. They also cited experts in health literacy who recommend that materials for the public be written at the fifth or sixth-grade reading level (Doak et al., 1996;Weiss and Coyne, 1997).Their study found that the average reading level of the 107 instructions they examined was the 10 th grade, too difficult for 80 percent adult readers in the U.S. When texts exceed the reading ability of readers, they usually stop reading. The authors did not address the design, completeness, or the organization of the instructions. They did not say that the instructions were badly written. Armed with the SMOG readability formula, they found the instructions were written at the wrong grade level. You can be sure the manufacturers of the car safety seats are scrambling to re-write their instructions. Many experts, through much research, have compiled golden rules of documentation writing. These rules apply regardless of medium:• Use short, simple, familiar words• Avoid jargon.• Use culture-and-gender-neutral language.• Use correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling.• Use simple sentences, active voice, and present tens...

show abstract

Section: Other Early School Formulasmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring translation difficulty

Sun

Shreve

2014

Target

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…, 1991Beck and his colleagues, e.g. , 1995Britton, Van Dusen, Gulgoz and Glynn, 1989;Davison and Kantor 1982;Duffy and Kabance 1982;Duffy et al, 1989;Graves et al, 1988 andKlare 1985;Olsen and Johnson 1989;Reder and Anderson 1980;Urquhart, 1984).…”

Section: Selection Of Texts: the Nature Of Inputmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Text Authenticity on the Performance of Iranian EFL Students in a C-Test

Cheng

BiglarBaygi

Solaymani

2009

RiL

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Effect of Text Authenticity on the Performance of Iranian EFL Students in a C-Test As part of growing efforts to understand factors affecting c-test this study aims to investigate the effect of text authenticity on the performance of Iranian EFL students in a C-Test. The C-Test is an integrative testing instrument that measures overall language competence, very much like the cloze test. In this study the rule of two has been applied: "the second half of every second word has been deleted, beginning with the second word of the second sentence; the first and last sentences are left intact" (Katona and Dornyei 1993: 35). The research involves 60 college students in their third year, majoring in English Literature at Ershad-Damavand College. This group were randomly selected applying multi-stage sampling. Since the present study intended to investigate the role of two different formats, i.e. authentic and inauthentic texts (text translated from Persian into English), two different tailored C-Tests were made to measure and compare the performances of the participants. Two C-Tests, one with Authentic Text and the other, with Inauthentic Text were administered to this homogenized group comprising 30 subjects. The findings of this study suggest that authenticity has an effect on the performance of learners in c-tests and we should control this variable while devising a c-test.

show abstract

“…[2][3][4][5][6] It's actually a myth, and one that harms us professionally when we perpetuate it. 7 I don't mean to be critical of Dr Venables.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Why scientific writers should study writing scientifically: the value of research into written communication

2017

ESE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the November 2016 EASE Newsletter, Julian Venables proposed "Five golden rules for writing a good scientific paper. "1 Rule #5 is "Be clear -sentences should be less than 25 words long. " He continues: "The 20 + 10 rule says that for each 10 words above 20 a sentence becomes twice as hard to read. So for a 70 word sentence, which is not uncommon for francophone scientists, there is an 'excess of 50 words' ie 5 extra 10s, or a 2x2x2x2x2 = a 32-fold increase in difficulty!" [Spelling and punctuation are as published.] Unfortunately, Rule #5 won't necessarily improve writing.2-6 It's actually a myth, and one that harms us professionally when we perpetuate it.7 I don't mean to be critical of Dr Venables. Most of my fellow medical writers and clients who are nonnative English speakers are also unaware of the research base and advanced skills that are a part of our profession. I learned them in the 1970s, when I was trained to be a technical writer by technical writers. My sense is that people entering the profession of medical writing in mid career do not get the same orientation or training. This lack of awareness is curious, if not disturbing, for another reason however. If physicians study medicine, psychologists study psychology, and historians study history, why don't writers study writing? Why the rule won't necessarily improve writingThe Rule is puzzling. What does it mean if a text is "twice as hard to read?" What is a "32-fold increase in difficulty?" I suspect that "reading difficulty" is the concept of "reading grade level, " which is the outcome of some readability formulas. The usual understanding of reading grade level is that a text written at, say, an 8th-grade level can be understood by a reader with at least an 8th-grade education. Not so. It means that half the 8th graders tested for their comprehension of a standardised text can answer correctly half of the questions about it.8 So, if we test 10 adolescents and only 5 answer 5 of 10 questions correctly-the circumstance that defines reading grade level-the "comprehension success rate" is only 25%. In fact, readability formulas have long been discredited as a way to guide revision or to evaluate writing.2,9-12 Consider the fact that a text and the same text written backwards, making it meaningless, have the same reading grade level.Back to Rule #5. Shortening sentences, by itself, does not necessarily improve comprehension, 4,5 and may even reduce it.6 Complexity, not length, is what reduces comprehension, and longer sentences have more opportunities to be complex. 13 Sentence length is a factor in many readability formulas, however, which penalise longer sentences as surrogates for increased complexity. The advice to use shorter sentences is not necessarily bad, it's just simplistic; based on correlation, not causation; and not supported by the research. Why the rule harms scientific writersConventional notions of writing are founded on what we learned in college composition classes and practiced in writing term papers in college; that is, on ...

show abstract

Testing a readable writing approach to text revision.

Cited by 60 publications

References 18 publications

Measuring translation difficulty

Measuring translation difficulty

The Effect of Text Authenticity on the Performance of Iranian EFL Students in a C-Test

Why scientific writers should study writing scientifically: the value of research into written communication

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About