Judging readability

Individuals are frequently called upon to judge the readability of written text. The accuracy of such judgments, studies show, ranges from high to low. This paper provides another look at the problem, based upon the judgments of 56 professional writers on five passages of text taken from a reading test. The judges were asked to rank the five passages from most readable to least readable. The results showed wide variability in the judgments. Only a few of the judges were able individually to put the passages in the tested order of readability, but the consensus of the entire group put them in exactly that order. Further examination of the results suggested that a relatively small number of gross errors in judgment were made. Accuracy of judgments, it appeared, might greatly increase with selection and/or training of judges, a procedure followed in certain studies where highly accurate judgments had been found. A readability formula was suggested as an accurate and convenient way of getting readability scores under most circumstances. Use of a formula might also, it was suggested, help a judge to increase his accuracy, but human interpretation of the scores was still felt to be needed.