DOCUMENT RESUME ED 359 508 CS 011 363 AUTHOR Olmstead, Phyllis M. TITLE Readability of Central FloridaNewspapers. PUB DATE 93 NOTE 51p. PUB TYPE Reports Research/Technical (143) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC03 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Audience Awareness; ContentAnalysis; Correlation; Higher Education; *Newspapers;*News Writing; *Readability; ReadabilityFormulas; Reading Research IDENTIFIERS *Florida (Central);Journalism Research ABSTRACT A study analyzed the readabilityof seven central Florida newspapers (one of which is a college newspaper)and "USA Today." "Rightwriter," a grammar checker and readabilitycomputer program, was used to evaluate frontpage articles for each of the eight newspapers. Thereadability formulas invokedin the readability program included the Flesch-Kincaid,Flesch, and FOG indexes. indicated that the Results average readability levels of theindividual newspapers ranged from 9.37 to 14.68 usingthe Flesch-Kincaid, 10.28 to 15.78 using FOG. A rankorder correlation of the three pairs of the tests possible was statistically significant forall pairs. Findings suggest that each of the papers (except thecollege paper) should consider encouraging its reporters and editorsto write articles that are more easily understood by theirtarget population. (Four figures of data are included; 20 references,a glossary of terms, a description of each front page and the text ofthe articles, a sample hardcopy of the "Rightwriter"program, and an appendix of data are attached.) (RS) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRSare the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** Amailavavau JO UVIIINHO VUIHOrla SH2dVdSMHM sTTTAIld '14 '10P94smI0 '14 'Pa /4TsaeATun go paquao T PIDT-T0T3 buTadS £661 On poomiaLIS m(Po aToaTD seao00 Z3 VIVT-T9L6E (Lot) 65T9-66Z f,!1`11'' cfirql 's.rt INAPI4Y11.110 AO solavan03 10 NOISSIY483d 01 S1H1 sow) 100,10P 113.108U lueommoichil 30f1008d3ki NOIIIIIMOiNIS33inOS31:11,0401.1.03(l03 1V1831V161 SVH N338 031NVI:ID A8 00:1311131/430 pyft pitunoop Soy tom p000popis se pomoo,_ Locui 41 001114I0 JO u0.pzlu8.4 dolituaSoo U p.oxiumolopinatimmOoAlLsoftftio,lowlefo Apiinouo.ioopoioo, Ilto0d *MAIO J0 sues.scle Meal Is eel .^309 ,3u) op IOU AolssOo plwitis 3q 1I 01 3141 lvNouvonaa S308110S38 P130 uoo.o00 JO Aotiocl Fi31N30 .1011:13) ABSTRACT The researcher analyzed the readability of seven Central Florida newspapers and USA Today. Rightwriter ®, a grammar checker and readability computer program, was used to evaluate front page articles for each of the eight papers. The readability formulas invoked in the readability program included the Flesch-Kincaid, Flesch, and FOG indexes. The average readability levels of the individual papers ranged from 9.37 to 14.68 using the Flesch-Kincaid, 10.28 to 15.78 using the FOG. A rank order correlation of the three possible pairs of the tests resulted in was statistically significant for all pairs at the .05 a level. The article contains a twenty item bibliography reference list, three tables, a glossary of terms, and three appendixes. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 1 METHODOLOGY 4 Newspapers Examined 5 RESULTS 8 DISCUSSION 14 BIBLIOGRAPHY 16 GLOSSARY OF TERMS 18 APPENDIX A 20 Orlando Business Journal 21 The Central Florida Future 23 The Orlando Sentinel, Sunday 25 The Orlando Sentinel, Wednesday 28 The Orlando Times 31 The Weekly 35 The West Orange Times 35 USA TODAY 38 APPENDIX B 43 RIGHTWRITER® HARDCOPY SAMPLE 43 APPENDIX C 46 PEARSON'S PRODUCT MOMENT CORRELATION 47 Flesch Kincaid with Flesch 47 Flesch Kincaid with FOG 47 Flesch with FOG 47 LIST OF FIGURES Newspapers, Issue Dates, and Number of Articles on Front Page 7 Words Per Article 8 Readability Results From RightWriter® 9 iii *.x Readability 1 REVIEW C3I? THE Many methods of estimating readability have been developed over the years. Chall and Conrad (1990) cited a Chall and Klare research project that identified and described over fifty readability formulas. Klare (1963) lists and describes 31 formulas and some of their variations. Some readability formulas use trained judges, word lists, measurement of text length, or sentence length and word difficulty to determine difficulty level of the text (Chall & Conrad, 1990; Chall, Conrad, & Harris- Sharples, 1991; Cottler, 1987; Fry, 1977; Klare, 1963; Zakaluk & Samuels, 1988). Some scales are difficulty indexes (0-100); lower scores reflecting higher levels of difficulty (Quesoftware, 1990). Some difficulty indexes have approximate grade level translation charts where a researcher can estimate the level of American education required to read and understand the text (Klare, 1988). Other formulas translate the difficulty level of the passage into approximate grade level reading ability (Quesoftware, 1990; Fry, 1977). During the 1920s and 1930s pioneers in readability concluded that sentence length and word difficulty were the best predictors of reading level (Klare, 1963; Zakaluk & Samuels, 1988). Some readability studies were developed using common word lists. Several authors claim that it was Edward Thorndike's vocabulary and comprehension studies that Readability 2 triggered the use of word lists in readability studies after he published a list of the most commonly used English words in 1921 (Chall & Conrad, 1990; Klare, 1963).Words were selected as being commonly recognized within a given population. The percent of words not on the list (not likely to be known by the reader) indicates the level of reading difficulty. This procedure makes the major assumption that the list is valid for the population the writing is being measured for AND that the given population have had similar life experiences. One example, the Dale readability index used 769 to 3,000-item word lists (Harrison, 1980; Chall and Conrad, 1990). Chall, Conrad, and Harris-Sharples (1991) conducted a longitudinal study on the reading levels of textbooks and the reading levels' relationship to student SAT scores. They concluded, By the eleventh grade, most of the textbooks used during the years of the SAT decline--1963 to 1975--were about 1 to 2 years below the average reading ability of the students and about 2 or more years below the readability levels of the SAT test passages. the decreasing challenge of the textbooks would likely have stronger negative influence on the progress of students who came from lower socioeconomic backgrounds since additional reading materials of advanced difficulty Readability 3 would probably be found less frequently in their homes than in the homes of more affluent students. (pp. 2-3) They further state that in fourth grade lower-income children's reading achievement starts decelerating. Research by Bain (1979) concluded that half of newspaper readers stop after reading lead paragraphs of newspaper articles, and stories that jump further reduces readership. Stories without jumps generally take up more space, resulting in fewer articles per page, but are more likely to be read completely compared to stories that jump to another page. Kevin Catalano (1990) indicates that "people resist stories that require more than high school- skill level." Catalano (1990), Healy (1990), Smith and Smith (1984) all conclude that, on the average, newspapers write over the heads of most readers. Diane Orchard recommends keeping readability under 9.0 using the FOG Index. Standard (60-70 or grades 8-9), fairly easy (70-80 or grade 7), and easy (80-90 or grade 6) ranges are included in the target readability level for newspapers using the Flesch index. Catalano concludes that wire services, a major source of material for small and medium papers, write in the very difficult and difficult ranges and use extremely long lead sentences even though the API's own guidebook recommends keeping words and sentences short (Wardlow, 1985). Readability 4 Are Central Florida newspapers meeting the readability criteria suggested by readability studies and the API? Local mewspapers should be gauged at the reading level of their populations' reading ability. The daily papers and community weeklies should be scaled toward clients with a sixth through ninth grade reading level. College papers should be gauged from tenth to twelfth grade to meet the needs of readers with a higher education level.A local business paper might need to be scaled more towards the general populace because some business owners and managers do not have high school diplomas or a college education. Articles aimed at a particular business interest group, like engineers or medical professionals, could be written at a higher level due to the educational prerequisites of the field. METHODOLOGY The researcher gatherc.d one edition of eight papers during the Spring of 1993. The papers included The Central Florida Future, Orlando Business Journal, The Orlando Sentinel--Sunday Edition, The Orlando Sentinel--Weekday Edition, The Orlando Times, The Weekly, USA Today, and The West Orange Times. All stories on the front page of each newspaper were keyboarded into separate WordPerfect® 5.1 files (see Figure 1). Sidebars and teases were ignored. The articles were typed as printed. Typos were not Readability 5 corrected if detected and sentences that jumped to another page were typed incomplete. RightWriter® 4.0 was invoked within each article, analyzing each article for readability level, writing strength, descriptiveness, and jargon use (Quesoftware, 1990). The formulas included in the