Readability question?

[Geoff Hart]

David Dubin wondered: <<We develop technical training for human  
resource management system software and payroll software and have a  
very diverse audience. One of the "standards" that we are in the  
process of discussing across our business  units is that of  
readability levels. So, to be brief, would you please share with me  
the  readability levels you target for specific audiences and/or cite  
other sources that may have that information?>>

Readability levels are a waste of time, and provide no useful data.  
(Steven Jong should be rebutting this statement in about 30 seconds.  
Hi, Steve! Long time no argue! <g>) There was an interesting article  
published a while back that demonstrated this quite conclusively:  
"Last rites for readability formulas in technical communication." BR  
CONNATSER Journal of technical writing and communication 29:33,  
271-287, Baywood, 1999

Other studies (all poorly designed and controlled, at least in the  
ones for which I've read the journal articles) contradict this paper.  
That might lead you to have more confidence in the formulas, but  
think of it this way: if half the studies claim the formulas are  
useful and half claim they're useless, this is clear evidence that  
the formulas fail at least as often as they succeed. That makes them  
a dangerous tool in my opinion. Sure they provide data, but as any  
scientist (including me, in a former life) will tell you, numbers  
don't always mean anything.

Want to prove this to your own satisfaction? Take any sentence, and  
randomize the word order; better still, rearrange the words so that  
the sentences are mutually contradictory. For extra points, randomize  
the punctuation. If your readability formula doesn't distinguish  
between the two sentences, you've just proved that your formula will  
not detect incomprehensible text. It certainly won't identify  
illogical, inconsistent, incomplete, dangerous, or factually  
incorrect text.

So don't waste your time with these meaningless formulas. Instead,  
hire a good editor, tell them to make sure the text is comprehensible  
to a general audience, and rest assured that you'll get the results  
you want.

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Geoff Hart   ghart at videotron.ca

(try geoffhart at mac.com if you don't get a reply)

www.geoff-hart.com

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