What Makes A Book Readable
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1935. First Printing. Hardcover. 8vo, publisher's green cloth stamped in gilt, very good, no jacket, some offsetting and tanning to endpapers, text clean, old owner's name in pencil on flyleaf (Emerson Brown of Chicago). 358 pp. In 1935, William S. Gray of the University of Chicago and Bernice Leary of Xavier College in Chicago published What Makes a Book Readable, one of the most important books in readability research. Like Dale and Tyler, they focused on what makes books readable for adults of limited reading ability. Their book included the first scientific study of the reading skills of American adults. The sample included 1,690 adults from a variety of settings and regions. The test used a number of passages from newspapers, magazines, and books—as well as a standard reading test. They found a mean grade score of 7.81 (eighth month of the seventh grade). About one-third read at the 2nd to 6th-grade level, one-third at the 7th to 12th-grade level, and one-third at the 13th–17th grade level.The authors emphasized that one-half of the adult population at that time lacked suitable reading materials. They wrote, "For them, the enriching values of reading are denied unless materials reflecting adult interests are adapted to their needs." The poorest readers, one-sixth of the adult population, need "simpler materials for use in promoting functioning literacy and in establishing fundamental reading habits." (Wikipedia). Very good. Item #H30740
Price: $100.00