Designed to appeal to students who want a short but up-to-date overview, researchers who are interested in a critical appraisal, and consumers who would like to know what leaders in the field think, this collection of articles highlights the changes that have occurred in readability research from the past to the present and makes predictions about the future. The articles and their authors are as follows: (1) "The Beginning Years" (Jeanne S. Chall); (2) "The Formative Years" (George R. Klare); (3) "Assigning Grade Levels without Formulas: Some Case Studies" (Alice Davison); (4) "Determining Difficulty Levels of Text Written in Languages Other than English" (Annette T. Rabin); and (5) "Writeability: The Principles of Writing for Increased Comprehension" (Edward B. Fry); (6) "New Ways of Assessing Text Difficulty" (Marilyn R. Binkley); and (7) "Toward a New Approach to Predicting Text Comprehensibility," (Beverly L. Zakaluk and L. Jay Samuels). (NH)