readability Readability is the ease with which a reader can understand a written text. In natural language, the readability of text depends on its content (the complexity of its vocabulary and syntax) and its presentation (such as typographic aspects t ...

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 styles. The intent is to discover which are the preferable styles to use in order to maximise the ability of the

reading audience Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

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

entities An entity is something that exists as itself, as a subject or as an object, actually or potentially, concretely or abstractly, physically or not. It need not be of material existence. In particular, abstractions and legal fictions are usually r ...

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

s, educators, design houses and

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government ...

s, and have resulted in divination of a number of '' rules of thumb'' based on

statistical analysis Statistical inference is the process of using data analysis to infer properties of an underlying distribution of probability.Upton, G., Cook, I. (2008) ''Oxford Dictionary of Statistics'', OUP. . Inferential statistical analysis infers propertie ...

of results which demonstrate a level of consistency in certain parameter

such as the quantity and location of White space (visual arts), whitespace which obtains maximum readability (e.g. 20% whitespace in text body, margins should be around 40% of the width, for English

textbook A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions. Schoolbooks are textboo ...

s, preferably including a

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

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

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A Readability Survey of Technical and Popular Literature
', Kwolek, ''Journalism Quarterly'', 50, 2, 255–64, Sum 73 *

', Scharff et al., Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. Here is one which is a survey of readability of surveys! *
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 *
Educational Resources Information Centre (ERIC) search: (Thesaurus Descriptors:readability AND Thesaurus Descriptors:surveys)
' accessed 20070121 *

', Chaparro et al., ''Usability News'', February 24, 2006 *
Reading Online Text with a Poor Layout: Is Performance Worse?
', Chaparro et al., ''Usability News'', February 24, 2006

External links

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Journal of Research in Reading
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browse
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usability.gov
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Example readability surveys

External links

See also