Readability survey

A readability survey is a statistical survey of the ability of people to read given passages of text, written, formatted and/or laid-out in a variety of s. The intent is to discover which are the preferrable styles to use in order to maximise the ability of the reading audience to receive the intended message.

Tests may be performed by surveying real people reading the works, or an abbreviated test may be followed, where a number of works are surveyed using pre-determined scoring methodologies, which were themselves developed by systematically surveying real people's response to given texts.

These tests are commissioned or performed by like publishers, educators, design houses and governments, and have resulted in divination of a number of "" based on statistical analysis of results which demonstrate a level of consistency in certain parameters [http://www.avery.com/promotions/color/facts_combinations.html] , such as the quantity and location of whitespace which obtains maximum readability (eg, 20% whitespace in text body, margins should be around 40% of the width, for English textbooks, preferrably including a down the left side of the page, or split over both sides, or down the right side as a last resort if sufficient room on the left is not available).

A readability survey implementation may use one or more readability tests in scoring the works.

Example readability surveys

* " [http://www.eric.ed.gov/sitemap/html_0900000b800bd7c6.html EJ085819 - A Readability Survey of Technical and Popular Literature] ", Kwolek, "Journalism Quarterly", 50, 2, 255-64, Sum 73

* " [http://hubel.sfasu.edu/research/survreslts.html Color Test Results] ", Scharff et al., Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas website accessed 20070121.

Here is one which is a survey of readability of surveys!

* " [http://ajm.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/21/1/49 Variation in the Readability of Items Within Surveys] ", Calderón et al., "American Journal of Medical Quality", Vol. 21, No. 1, 49-56 (2006)

Many more may be found by searching the literature, for example

* " [http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal?_nfpb=true&ERICExtSearch_Operator_2=and&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=de&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_2=&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_1=&ERICExtSearch_Operator_1=and&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_1=kw&ERICExtSearch_PubDate_To=2007&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=readability+AND+surveys Educational Resources Information Centre (ERIC) search: (Thesaurus Descriptors:readability AND Thesaurus Descriptors:surveys)] " accessed 20070121

* " [http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/62/whitespace.htm Reading Online Text: A Comparison of Four White Space Layouts] ", Chaparro et al., "Usability News", February 24, 2006

* " [http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/71/page_setting.html Reading Online Text with a Poor Layout: Is Performance Worse?] ", Chaparro et al., "Usability News", February 24, 2006

External links

* " [http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0141-0423 Journal of Research in Reading] " -- [http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpl/jrir browse]

* " [http://www.usability.gov/ usability.gov] "

Wikipedia links

* "Journal of Research in Reading"