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Readability is the ease with which a reader can understand a written text. The readability of a particular text depends on content (for example, the complexity of its vocabulary and syntax) and typography (for example, its font size, line height, and line length). Researchers have used various factors to measure readability, such as * Speed of perception * Perceptibility at a distance * Perceptibility in peripheral vision * Visibility * Reflex blink technique * Rate of work (e.g., reading speed) * eye movements * Fatigue in reading Readability is different from legibility—which is a measure of how easily a reader can distinguish individual letters or characters from each other. Readability can determine the ease with which humans can read computer program code, such as in embedded documentation. ==Definition== People have defined readability in various ways, e.g., in: The Literacy Dictionary,〔Harris, Theodore L. and Richard E. Hodges, eds. 1995. ''The Literacy Dictionary, The Vocabulary of Reading and Writing.'' Newark, DE: International Reading Assn.〕 Jeanne Chall and Edgar Dale,〔Dale, Edgar and Jeanne S. Chall. 1949. "The concept of readability." ''Elementary English'' 26:23.〕 G. Harry McLaughlin,〔McLaughlin, G. H. 1969. "SMOG grading-a new readability formula." ''Journal of reading'' 22:639–646.〕 William DuBay.〔DuBay, W. H. 2006. ''Smart language: Readers, Readability, and the Grading of Text''. Costa Mesa:Impact Information.〕 Easy reading helps learning and enjoyment, so what we write should be easy to understand.〔Fry, Edward B. 2006. "Readability." ''Reading Hall of Fame Book.'' Newark, DE: International Reading Assn.〕 While many writers and speakers since ancient times have used plain language, the 20th century brought more focus to reading ease. Much research has focused on matching prose to reading skills. This has used many successful formulas: in research, government, teaching, publishing, the military, medicine, and business. Many people in many languages have been helped by this.〔Fry, E. B. 1986. ''Varied uses of readability measurement.'' Paper presented at the 31st Annual Meeting of the International Reading Association, Philadelphia, PA.〕〔Rabin, A. T. 1988 "Determining difficulty levels of text written in languages other than English." In ''Readability: Its past, present, and future,'' eds. B. L. Zakaluk and S. J. Samuels. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.〕 By the year 2000, there were over 1,000 studies on readability formulas in professional journals about their validity and merit.〔Klare, G. R. 2000. "Readable computer documentation." ''ACM journal of computer documentation" 24, no. 3: 148–168.〕 The study of reading is not just in teaching. Research has shown that much money is wasted by companies in making texts hard for the average reader to read.〔Kimble, Joe. 1996–97. ''Writing for dollars. Writing to please.'' ''Scribes journal of legal writing'' 6. Available online at: ( http://www.plainlanguagenetwork.org/kimble/dollars.htm )〕 There are summaries of this research; see the links in this section. Many textbooks on reading include pointers to readability.〔Harris, A. J. and E. Sipay. 1985. ''How to increase reading ability, 8th Ed.'' New York & London: Longman.〕〔Ruddell, R. B. 1999. ''Teaching children to read and write.'' Boston: Allyn and Bacon.〕〔Manzo, A. V. and U. C. Manzo. 1995. ''Teaching children to be literate.'' Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace.〕〔Vacca, J. A., R. Vacca, and M. K. Gove. 1995. ''Reading and learning to read.'' New York: Harper Collins.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Readability」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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