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Many health writers say their materials are easy to read and suitable for readers of average skills, or below. When I ask how they determine this, writers often talk about measuring readability with grade-level formulas (also called “readability assessment tools” or “readability formulas”).
I cringe if this is the only way they assess readability, especially when writers rely solely on formulas within word-processing programs. Although arguably better than nothing, to me (and many others) such formulas are an imperfect and incomplete way to assess readability. Here are some reasons why:
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Write My Essay For MeSome of the most commonly used reading grade–level formulas (in-• cluding the Fry and the SMOG, discussed later in this chapter) were designed many years ago to help teachers select textbooks for stu- dents. These formulas were never intended to measure the readability of health materials written for adults. More than 100 factors impact how readable any given document is, • including its sentence length, word choice, organization, tone, lay- out, use of illustrations, and relevance to readers. But most reading grade–level formulas measure just a few of these factors. Commonly, they calculate readability based on the average number of words in sentences and the average number of syllables in words. Nonetheless, research shows that the length of sentences and length of words do
Osborne, M.Ed. Health Literacy From A to Z, Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uneedu/detail.action?docID=3319392. Created from uneedu on 2018-03-21 13:14:06.
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