A COMPARISON OF THE READABILITY OF NEWSPAPER COLUMNS WRITTEN BY NATIONAL JOURNALISM AWARD WINNERS

Multiple factors contribute to the readability of printed documents. Although font size and style, formatting/layout, and writing style may affect reader comprehension, readability formulas typically use other more measureable factors such as sentence length and number of multi-syllable words to det...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of organizational culture, communication and conflict communication and conflict, 2013-01, Vol.17 (1), p.149
Main Authors:	Rollins, M Wayne, Lewis, Stephen D
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Audiences Communication Comparative analysis Hypotheses Internet access Journalism Journalism awards Journalists Museums Readability Reading comprehension Studies Writers Writing
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	Multiple factors contribute to the readability of printed documents. Although font size and style, formatting/layout, and writing style may affect reader comprehension, readability formulas typically use other more measureable factors such as sentence length and number of multi-syllable words to determine reading grade levels needed to understand a document. The purpose of this research was to compare the readability of newspaper columns written by National Journalism Award recipients. Specifically, articles by writers who received awards for commentary were compared to articles written by business/economics reporters. Significant differences were found between the two groups. Business/economics writers' columns on average were written at about 2.5 grade levels above the columns written those who wrote commentaries. Readability grade levels ranged from 3.9 to 13.8 for commentary writers; for business/economics writers the range was 5.6 to 14.4. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:	1544-0508 1939-4691