Readability
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Contents |
[edit] In Science
In the sciences, readability is a measure of an instruments ability to display incremental changes in its output value. For example, a balance with a readability of 1 mg will not display any difference between objects with masses from 0.6 mg to 1.4 mg, because possible display values are 0 mg, 1 mg, 2 mg etc. Likewise, a balance with a readability of 0.1 mg will not display any difference between objects with masses from 0.06 mg to 0.14 mg.
[edit] In Writing
Generally, readability is a measure of the accessibility of a piece of writing, indicating how wide an audience it will reach. Readability is a judgement of how easy a text is to understand. The understandabilty of a text is an interaction between the reader (their prior knowledge of the content and the text features of the material read) and aspects of the text itself. Presentation factors unrelated to the language of the text also affect readability, for example choice of typeface, text size, layout and colors.
Readability formulas give a rough indication of a passage's readability. They generate a score based on word length (which is a proxy for semantic difficulty) and sentence length (which is a proxy for syntactic complexity). Some readbility formulas refer to a list of words graded for difficulty. These formulas attempt to overcome the fact that some words, like "television", are well known to younger children, but have many syllables. In practice, however, the utility of simple word and sentence length measures make them more popular for readabilty formulas. Scores are compared with scales based on judged linguistic difficulty or reading grade level. Many readability formulas measure word length in syllables rather than letters, but only SMOG has a computerized readability program incorporating an accurate Syllable Counter. Since readability tests do not factor in meaning, they should not be considered definitive measures of readability. Certain word processing programs have some of these formulas built in.
Some readability tests for English are:
- SMOG (Simple Measure Of Gobbledygook)
- Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
- Fry Readability Formula
- Automated Readability Index (ARI)
- Coleman-Liau Index
- Gunning-Fog Index
- Raygor Estimate Graph
- Linsear Write
- ATOS
[edit] In Programming
Different indentation styles allow to improve readibality of source code.
[edit] In Typography
Correct use of type size, line spacing, column width, text-color-background contrast and white space make text easy to to read. See Typography#Readability_and_legibility for more details.
[edit] External links
- 70-page pdf file reviewing research on readability formulas
- Online SMOG calculator
- Readability Scores for Web pages and MS Word files
- GNU Style and Diction Command line programs to calculate score
- Online score calculator - supports different readability measurements.
- online Gunning Fog, Flesch Reading Ease, and Flesch-Kincaid calculators
- 100% Easy2Read Standard A readability campaign launched by a web design philosopher in Japan. Five criteria to evaluate online readability.