Forty anatomy articles were sampled from English Wikipedia and assessed quantitatively and qualitatively. Quantitatively, each article's edit history was analyzed by Wikipedia X-tools, references and media were counted manually, and two readability indices were used to evaluate article readability. This analysis revealed that each article was…

In the article, "What examiners do: What thesis students should know", we identified 11 things that thesis examiners do as they read and judge a thesis. But, we left a gap in the research: knowing this, What should thesis students do to write for their examiners? In this article, I fill the gap. The advice for thesis students is: first,…

An individualized education program is a legal document that details information regarding the special education program of a student with a disability. For parents to determine whether they agree with the individualized education program that is proposed by the school, they must first be able to read and comprehend the document. This study aimed…

Reports that the writing of textbooks, once the domain of professional educators, has increasingly become a field for professional writers and journalists. (RB)

Using computers to author and edit text is now feasible and economical, and this paper describes two elements of a computer-based publishing system which aids authors by automatically generating certain types of training material, and in writing easily understood text. The routines are operating on the Training and Evaluation group's minicomputer…

Describes two software routines developed for authors of Navy training materials. SCAT (Systems for Computer Automated Typesetting) automatically composes and formats text, merging it with stored graphics, while CRES (Computer Readability Editing System) aids in writing readable text at the desired level. A six-item bibliography and eight…

Suggests that editors resist the common urge to squeeze paragraphs together to save space. Discusses the difference between writing and editing paragraphs, topic sentences, connectives, levels of discourse, what paragraphs do for the writer, how long paragraphs should be, and the flexibility of paragraph structure. (RS)

Developed by the Multi-level Captioning Project, the manual provides guidelines for linguistically controlling reading materials for the deaf. An introduction describes the three proposed reading levels based on difficulty of vocabulary, syntax, and inference. Chapter 1, on vocabulary, considers word list sources, guidelines for controlling…

Compares the grammatical structure of original press releases with the resultant placements in daily newspapers. Finds that, in their use of press releases, journalists almost always have to make them simpler, shorter, easier to read, and less passive. (SR)

Gives a case history of how one writing group devised a way to deal with the problem of author-created noun strings and long, indecipherable unit modifiers, satisfying both internal and external clients. Describes the development of an in-house usage guide. (PRA)

The computer readability editing system described in this report was developed to serve as an author's aid in improving the ease of comprehending Navy technical manuals and training materials. The system has features to (1) flag uncommon and misspelled words and long sentences, (2) suggest simple replacements for difficult words and phrases, and…

The author explores problems in technical writing, the editor's role, and the author-editor relationship. He presents a list of basic writing rules to help the technical writer achieve success. These involve subject matter, deadlines, purpose, topic sentences, arrangement, clarity, idea development, examples, vocabulary, reading level, and…

Four experiments tested reader reaction to selected newspaper design techniques, including jumps, wraps, type style, and picture size. The results implied that a newspaper striving for the highest overall readership of its stories will get the best results by keeping jumps to a minimum and running larger pictures. (RL)

To assess the context in which information is presented to readers and to know what demands information being presented makes of an audience, IBM designed three procedures to help gather such material. First, customer sites are visited to interview representatives from the intended audience and see the environments in which the information will be…

This final report describes the development and test of a computer readability editing system for use in improving the ease of comprehending Navy technical manuals and training materials. The prototype editing system has features to (1) flag uncommon and misspelled words and long sentences, (2) suggest simple replacements for difficult words, and…