Linked e-resources
Details
Table of Contents
Cover; Contents; Preface; About the Authors; 1 Introduction to a New Approach to Readability; Evidence; Some basic concepts; Linking; Ambiguity; Contextual (background) knowledge; The chapters: an outline; 2 Readability Formulas; Historical background; Early attempts to measure readability; Thorndike: the precursor; Lively and Pressey: "A Method for Measuring 'Vocabulary Burden'"; Vogel and Washburne: "an objective method"; Adults' reading material; Dale and Tyler: adults with limited reading ability; Gray and Leary: what makes a book readable; Lorge and benchmarks
Classic readability formulasFlesch and readable style; The Dale-Chall formulas; Gunning Fog; Fry's Readability Graph; McLaughlin's SMOG; Other approaches to readability; The cloze procedure; Coh-Metrix; Readability formulas: a critique; The increment issue; The variables issue; The text simplification issue; Conclusions; Beyond formulas: how do we proceed?; 3 Grammar and Readability; Syntactic complexity; Syntactic ambiguity; Standard syntactic ambiguity; Down the garden path; Ambiguity and context; Morphology and linking; Chapter summary and concluding remarks
4 Meaning in Words and SentencesAssessing vocabulary difficulty: word lists and word length; Knowledge, vocabulary, and readability; Morphological and other background knowledge; Words and contexts; Word meaning and contextual knowledge; Semantic ambiguity; The nature of reference; Vagueness and reference; Ambiguity and reference; Summary and conclusions; 5 Coherence and Discourse; What is coherence?; Conceptual linking and repetition; Background knowledge and assumptions; Genre; The effects of genre on readability; Frames and scripts; Domains; Connectives; Coherence and metaphor
Varieties of metaphorComprehension, fluency, and coherence; Summary and conclusions; 6 Towards a Theory of Readability; Text and context 1: background knowledge and assumptions; Text and context 2: the linguistic code; Text and context 3: the organization of the text; Text and context 4: synergistic effects; The practicality argument; Readability and education; Readability and writing to communicate; A theory of readability; Notes; Bibliography; Index
Classic readability formulasFlesch and readable style; The Dale-Chall formulas; Gunning Fog; Fry's Readability Graph; McLaughlin's SMOG; Other approaches to readability; The cloze procedure; Coh-Metrix; Readability formulas: a critique; The increment issue; The variables issue; The text simplification issue; Conclusions; Beyond formulas: how do we proceed?; 3 Grammar and Readability; Syntactic complexity; Syntactic ambiguity; Standard syntactic ambiguity; Down the garden path; Ambiguity and context; Morphology and linking; Chapter summary and concluding remarks
4 Meaning in Words and SentencesAssessing vocabulary difficulty: word lists and word length; Knowledge, vocabulary, and readability; Morphological and other background knowledge; Words and contexts; Word meaning and contextual knowledge; Semantic ambiguity; The nature of reference; Vagueness and reference; Ambiguity and reference; Summary and conclusions; 5 Coherence and Discourse; What is coherence?; Conceptual linking and repetition; Background knowledge and assumptions; Genre; The effects of genre on readability; Frames and scripts; Domains; Connectives; Coherence and metaphor
Varieties of metaphorComprehension, fluency, and coherence; Summary and conclusions; 6 Towards a Theory of Readability; Text and context 1: background knowledge and assumptions; Text and context 2: the linguistic code; Text and context 3: the organization of the text; Text and context 4: synergistic effects; The practicality argument; Readability and education; Readability and writing to communicate; A theory of readability; Notes; Bibliography; Index