Readability Formulas

Abstract

The legitimacy and methodology of using statistical measures to assess the readability of documents has been widely debated in the business and management communication literature. This article identifies major philosophical, methodological, and pedagogical issues in the controversy and explores their implications for using numerical readability measures to assess written documents. The central philosophical issue that the article addresses relates to the “appropriate” role of scientific inquiry in rhetoric. The second issue has to do with the variables readability indexes measure. Is length a sufficient and satisfactory factor in explaining reading difficulty? Finally, the article examines the pedagogical implications of using readability formulas to teach style and suggests a tentative research agenda.