Comparative Readability: Four Formulas and Newbery Books
Loyd J. Guidry, Diana Knight · The Journal of Reading · 1976
most every point of view and consider almost every linguistic peculiarity of the language as determiners of grade level readability. A survey of the literature, however, shows that there is really no clear-cut school of thought in the determination of readability. In fact, one worker in the field (Manzo, 1970) has even called for a moratorium on such research. This call, of course, has gone unheeded and research specialists continue to relate language variables to readability and to attempt to relate such unmeasurable values as motivation, experience, maturity, and reader interest level. Tibbetts (1973) agrees with Manzo in saying that researchers lost their bearings and become mired in all that the formulas cannot do, when it might be more worthwhile to stress those things that the formulas can Reading teachers and librarians have known for a long time what these formulas can and cannot do. These professionals have been forced to use the available readability formulas in spite of the acknowledged shortcomings and intuitively have had to