Estimating Readability with a Computer: Beware the Aura of Precision.
Frederick A. Duffelmeyer · The Reading Teacher · 1985
ing level and difficulty of mate rial that student is to read. Readability formulas can be of assist ance, but there is danger of grant ing them more precision than they merit. Although readability formulas often report values in terms of tenths and even hundredths, as measurement devices they are nowhere near that pre cise. Most reading educators would grant them no more discriminating power than one grade level. Remember that vast majority of formulas consider only two variables: word difficulty and sentence length. The vast majority do not consider, at least directly, what Carver calls the