science

Readability survey

Readability survey is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Readability survey rather than just read about it. In short: 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 styles. The intent is to discover which are the preferable styles to use in order to maximise the ability of the reading audience to receive the intended message.

Key takeaways

Readability survey belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Readability survey to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Readability survey from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

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 styles. The intent is to discover which are the preferable 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 entities like publishers, educators, design houses and governments, and have resulted in divination of a number of rules of thumb based on statistical analysis of results which demonstrate a level of consistency in certain parameters [1], such as the quantity and location of whitespace which obtains maximum readability (e.g. 20% whitespace in text body, margins should be around 40% of the width, for English textbooks, preferably including a column 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 A Readability Survey of Technical and Popular Literature, Kwolek, Journalism Quarterly, 50, 2, 255–64, Sum 73 Color Test Results, 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 Reading Online Text: A Comparison of Four White Space Layouts Archived 2014-10-22 at the Wayback Machine, 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 Journal of Research in Reading -- browse usability.gov

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Readability survey

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Readability survey claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Readability survey before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Readability survey ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Readability survey

In research: Readability survey appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Readability survey in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Readability survey is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Readability, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Readability survey outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Readability survey in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Readability survey means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Readability survey out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Readability survey in simple terms?

Why does Readability survey matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Readability survey?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Readability survey.