ERIC/RCS: The Cloze Procedure.
William H. Rupley · The Journal of Reading · 1973
►Wilson L. Taylor developed the basic concept of the cloze procedure in 1953 and since its inception cloze has been widely used in the area of reading primarily for diagnostic purposes. Taylor's definition of cloze, which has become the generally accepted one of those working with the cloze procedure, consisted of a transmitter, mutilation of the transmitter's language patterns (by deleting every fifth word), and administering the mutilated language patterns to a receiver who attempts to make the mutilated patterns whole again. Users of cloze procedure have usually utilized passages of relatively free standing prose, 250 to 300 words long with every fifth or tenth word deleted. Teachers may, however, discover that every fifth word deletion is too difficult for students below the fourth grade and a tenth word deletion may be more appropriate. The percentage of correct cloze items is determined by dividing the number of correct cloze items by the total number of cloze items on the test. The percentage of cloze items correctly completed by a subject can then be compared with a criterion scale. One example of a criterion scale is the one developed by Rankin and Culhane, 1969. The independent level of the student would be the correct re-