This study focuses on the ability, or inability, to replicate or compare the design of text-related research from the perspective of the independent or dependent variables employed in such designs. Prior text-related research has used variables that were not clearly described or defined, could not be directly compared from one study or time period to the next, or were applied inappropriately. Measurements of typography-related and substrate-related variables may have absolute or relative values, and confusion can arise if the variables are not clearly identified and defined. The study is an integrative review with mixed methods research design investigating 44 books and two websites (part 1), and 83 journal articles and four theses/dissertations (part 2). The integrative review shows that the sources investigated present neither essential information on typographic and substrate characteristics nor consistent definitions of legibility and readability in order to allow comparable replication from one study to another. Findings are displayed in Chapter 4. Discussion and the related details are presented in Chapter 5. / PHD

Limited health literacy is a barrier to understanding health information. Simplifying text can reduce this barrier and possibly other known disparities in health. Unfortunately, few tools exist to simplify text with demonstrated impact on comprehension. By leveraging modern data sources integrated with natural language processing algorithms, we are developing the first semi-automated text simplification tool. We present two main contributions. First, we introduce our evidence-based development strategy for designing effective text simplification software and summarize initial, promising results. Second, we present a new study examining existing readability formulas, which are the most commonly used tools for text simplification in healthcare. We compare syllable count, the proxy for word difficulty used by most readability formulas, with our new metric ‘term familiarity’ and find that syllable count measures how difficult words ‘appear’ to be, but not their actual difficulty. In contrast, term familiarity can be used to measure actual difficulty.

O livro é um importante recurso mediador do processo ensino-aprendizagem e um necessário meio de realização dos objetivos do ensino. Não obstante a sua importância, pouca atenção tem sido dada para o critério sobre o qual a sua escolha é feita. Critérios como correção conceitual, ilustrações apropriadas e terminologias claras são importantes, mas pouco representam se o livro não for compreensivo. Como conseqüência da falta de critério objetivo e fundamentado por teoria válida, alunos podem submeter-se a textos de difícil leitura, de linguagem obscura e complexa provocando sentimento de frustração. Considerando a relevância do livro e o papel que ele desempenha tanto no ensino como na comunicação de conhecimento é que se estabeleceu a seguinte questão de pesquisa: Os livros de contabilidade utilizados nos cursos introdutórios são de fato compreensíveis? Neste sentido, investigou-se, por meio de um experimento, a compreensibilidade de dois livros de contabilidade introdutória que são mais adotados pelas universidades públicas brasileiras. Para tal fim valemo-nos de uma técnica que consiste na retirada sistemática de palavras do texto cuja compreensibilidade se desejava avaliar. Fundamentada na Teoria da Informação e no pressuposto de amostra aleatória das palavras omitidas, a técnica, denominada Cloze, é amplamente utilizada devido à facilidade de análise e economia para sua administração. Os livros selecionados foram submetidos a testes por um grupo de 213 estudantes do curso de Ciências Contábeis do Departamento de Contabilidade e Atuária da Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade da Universidade de São Paulo. Os resultados das análises indicaram, contrariamente aos estudos anteriores, a falta de relação entre o desempenho no teste Cloze e o nível de formação do estudante, bem como a existência de diferença significativa entre o desempenho do estudante no teste Cloze, considerando sua resposta sem e com sinônimo. Não foi também observada forte relação entre o desempenho do estudante no teste Cloze e o seu correspondente desempenho acadêmico na disciplina. Análises indicaram que, em relação aos textos examinados, a maior parte dos estudantes demonstrou desempenho satisfatório e os textos apresentaram uniformidade na distribuição dos escores. Neste sentido, conclui-se pela compreensibilidade dos livros e, conseqüentemente, sua adequação aos períodos considerados. / Books are an important resource that mediates the teaching-learning process and are essential for the achievement of learning goals. Despite their importance, little attention has been given to their selection method. Although criteria such as concept correction, adequate illustration and clear terminology are important, they add little value if the book is not understandable. The lack of an objective criterion based on a solid theory may eventually expose students to texts that are difficult to read, and which contain an obscure, complex language that leads to frustration. Considering the importance of the book and its role in education and in knowledge dissemination, the following objective was established for this study: Are the accounting textbooks used in introductory courses really understandable? An experiment was conducted in order to assess understandability of two of the introductory accounting textbooks most frequently used at Brazilian public universities. The technique used consists in the systematic removal of words from texts that were the focus of our assessment. Based on the Theory of Information and on the principle of randomized sample of hidden words, this technique, named Cloze, has been widely used, since it is easy to analyze and simple to manage. The textbooks selected were tested by a group of 213 students of the Accounting Sciences course, of the Department of Accounting and Actuarial Practices of the School of Economics, Administration and Accounting, University of São Paulo. Unlike previous studies, the results of this assessment showed lack of relationship between the students’ educational background and their achievement in Cloze, as well as a significant difference in the students’ performance in the test for answers with/without synonyms. No significant relationship was found between the students’ performance in Cloze and their corresponding achievement in that particular subject. Analyses of the texts assessed revealed that most students had a satisfactory performance and the texts were consistent in terms of score distribution. In this sense, we confirm the understandability of the textbooks assessed and, consequently, their suitability to the periods in question.

Thesis (M. A.)--University of Canterbury, 2009. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 197-218). Also available via the World Wide Web.

O livro é um importante recurso mediador do processo ensino-aprendizagem e um necessário meio de realização dos objetivos do ensino. Não obstante a sua importância, pouca atenção tem sido dada para o critério sobre o qual a sua escolha é feita. Critérios como correção conceitual, ilustrações apropriadas e terminologias claras são importantes, mas pouco representam se o livro não for compreensivo. Como conseqüência da falta de critério objetivo e fundamentado por teoria válida, alunos podem submeter-se a textos de difícil leitura, de linguagem obscura e complexa provocando sentimento de frustração. Considerando a relevância do livro e o papel que ele desempenha tanto no ensino como na comunicação de conhecimento é que se estabeleceu a seguinte questão de pesquisa: Os livros de contabilidade utilizados nos cursos introdutórios são de fato compreensíveis? Neste sentido, investigou-se, por meio de um experimento, a compreensibilidade de dois livros de contabilidade introdutória que são mais adotados pelas universidades públicas brasileiras. Para tal fim valemo-nos de uma técnica que consiste na retirada sistemática de palavras do texto cuja compreensibilidade se desejava avaliar. Fundamentada na Teoria da Informação e no pressuposto de amostra aleatória das palavras omitidas, a técnica, denominada Cloze, é amplamente utilizada devido à facilidade de análise e economia para sua administração. Os livros selecionados foram submetidos a testes por um grupo de 213 estudantes do curso de Ciências Contábeis do Departamento de Contabilidade e Atuária da Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade da Universidade de São Paulo. Os resultados das análises indicaram, contrariamente aos estudos anteriores, a falta de relação entre o desempenho no teste Cloze e o nível de formação do estudante, bem como a existência de diferença significativa entre o desempenho do estudante no teste Cloze, considerando sua resposta sem e com sinônimo. Não foi também observada forte relação entre o desempenho do estudante no teste Cloze e o seu correspondente desempenho acadêmico na disciplina. Análises indicaram que, em relação aos textos examinados, a maior parte dos estudantes demonstrou desempenho satisfatório e os textos apresentaram uniformidade na distribuição dos escores. Neste sentido, conclui-se pela compreensibilidade dos livros e, conseqüentemente, sua adequação aos períodos considerados. / Books are an important resource that mediates the teaching-learning process and are essential for the achievement of learning goals. Despite their importance, little attention has been given to their selection method. Although criteria such as concept correction, adequate illustration and clear terminology are important, they add little value if the book is not understandable. The lack of an objective criterion based on a solid theory may eventually expose students to texts that are difficult to read, and which contain an obscure, complex language that leads to frustration. Considering the importance of the book and its role in education and in knowledge dissemination, the following objective was established for this study: Are the accounting textbooks used in introductory courses really understandable? An experiment was conducted in order to assess understandability of two of the introductory accounting textbooks most frequently used at Brazilian public universities. The technique used consists in the systematic removal of words from texts that were the focus of our assessment. Based on the Theory of Information and on the principle of randomized sample of hidden words, this technique, named Cloze, has been widely used, since it is easy to analyze and simple to manage. The textbooks selected were tested by a group of 213 students of the Accounting Sciences course, of the Department of Accounting and Actuarial Practices of the School of Economics, Administration and Accounting, University of São Paulo. Unlike previous studies, the results of this assessment showed lack of relationship between the students’ educational background and their achievement in Cloze, as well as a significant difference in the students’ performance in the test for answers with/without synonyms. No significant relationship was found between the students’ performance in Cloze and their corresponding achievement in that particular subject. Analyses of the texts assessed revealed that most students had a satisfactory performance and the texts were consistent in terms of score distribution. In this sense, we confirm the understandability of the textbooks assessed and, consequently, their suitability to the periods in question.

No description available.

In our information age, it is of the highest importance that information is easy to understand by as many members of the potential target audience as possible. The present study analyses and compares the readability of 20 newspaper articles, half from the tabloid Daily Mail and the other half from the broadsheet The Daily Telegraph. The methods used to analyse the articles are mathematic readability formulas based on sentence and word length, as well as analyses of the use of the active and the passive voice, type-token ratio, number of clauses per sentence, and linking words. The results do not completely align with each other. Three of the five methods – the readability formulas, the use of the passive voice, and clauses per sentence – suggest that the Daily Mail articles are easier to understand, whereas the type-token ratios imply the opposite, and the linking words results did not show a difference in readability.

Smartphone usage is higher than ever and the number is steadily increasing, but not all websites on the Internet are adapted for use on smartphones. This study set out to find common and proven guidelines from the current scientific literature and create a guide on how to best adapt a desktop website to be optimized for use on smartphones. Areas of research were usability, readability and energy saving. A literature review of the body of data on the subject was reviewed and the result was put in a list of guidelines. The guidelines were used to compare the desktop version versus the smartphone version on 5 frequently visited websites.    The result was summarized with a score for each website and their respective solution for displaying components on small screens was noted. A prototype website was constructed in two versions: one responsive and one unresponsive. The prototype website’s different versions were then tested by a group of testers. The result of the tests concluded that the guidelines raised user satisfaction and readability. Sufficient energy saving metrics could not be extracted in the way design and usability was tested and had to be excluded from the testing.    The list of guidelines showed that there are solutions for solving readability, usability issues  and energy-saving issues on smartphones. The testing concluded that there was an increase in text readability and usability of the website when the guidelines were implemented. Further testing of energy saving must be conducted to test the validity of the remaining untested  guidelines.

Notre recherche a pour objectif d’étudier le comportement du dirigeant des sociétés cotées en France lorsqu’il diffuse l’information aux investisseurs. Nous considérons que le dirigeant adopte un comportement « opportuniste », défini par la théorie de la gestion des impressions. Ainsi, le dirigeant cache les « mauvaises informations » notamment la mauvaise performance financière, qui peuvent avoir une influence sur le cours de l’action au travers de la lisibilité narrative. L’objet de cette recherche est formulé sous la question suivante : Quels sont les déterminants de la lisibilité de l’information diffusée par les sociétés cotées en France ? Nous étudions 192 sociétés cotées en France au CAC All entre 2007 et 2012. Notre échantillon est composé de 1152 observations entreprise/année concernant l’étude du rapport de gestion et 1012 observations entreprise/année concernant l’étude le mot du Président. Nous mesurons la lisibilité au travers de l’indice de Flesch (adapté à la langue française) issu de la littérature informatique en linguistique et au travers de la longueur des parties étudiées. Ce travail met en exergue le comportement opportuniste de diffusion de l’information des dirigeants. Les résultats de l’analyse quantitative indiquent d’une part que la performance financière influence la lisibilité du rapport annuel et d’autre part que l’obligation de diffuser une information lisible n’influence pas la lisibilité du rapport annuel des sociétés cotées en France. / This research aims to study the manager’s behavior of listed companies in France when manager discloses information to investors. Based on the theory of impression management, we consider manager is "opportunistic". In this way, manager obfuscates the “bad news” especially bad financial performance that can have an impact on the share price trough narrative readability. The purpose of this research is formulated by the following question: What are determinants of disclosed information readability by listed companies in France? We investigate 192 french listed companies in the CAC All between 2007 and 2012. This yields a sample of 1,152 firm-years with MD&A sections and 1,012 firm-years with Chairmen’s statements. We measure the readability using the Flesch formulas (adapted to the French language) from the computational linguistic literature and the length of the annual report parts. This research highlights manager is likely to have opportunistic behavior when he discloses information to investors. Results from quantitative analysis suggest both financial performance affects the readability of annual report and obligation to disclose readable information does not affect the readability of the annual report of listed companies in France.

Este trabalho investiga os efeitos da OCPC07 na legibilidade e no tamanho das notas explicativas divulgadas por empresas de capital aberto. Como objetivo complementar, buscou-se entender qual o conjunto de características das empresas determinam o grau de legibilidade e o comprimento de suas notas explicativas. Foi coletada uma amostra de 163 empresas de capital aberto com dados para os anos de 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 e 2017. Como proxy para medir a complexidade dos textos foram utilizados o Flesch Index e o logaritmo natural número de palavras dos textos presentes nas notas explicativas. Para testar os efeitos da OCPC07 nos aspectos formais das divulgações de Instrumentos Financeiros e Gestão de Riscos foi realizado um teste de média para verificar se a diferença entre as médias das proxies de complexidade é significativa nos períodos pré e pós-divulgação da norma. Para encontrar os fatores que influenciam o tamanho e a legibilidade das notas explicativas utilizou-se uma técnica exploratória (Análise de Correspondência) e uma técnica confirmatória (Dados em Painel) com o objetivo de medir a relação entre as proxies de complexidade e os possíveis influenciadores. Os resultados encontrados mostram que a legibilidade das notas explicativas não mudou desde 2013 até 2017. A diferença de médias do Flesch Index mostrou-se não significativa. Por outro lado, o tamanho das notas explicativas diminuiu no período estudado de modo que a diferença de médias do número de palavras mostrou-se significativa. O teste de associação mostrou que empresas com melhor performance estão associadas a notas explicativas mais legíveis, porém mais longas. A técnica de dados em painel mostrou relação estatisticamente significante e positiva entre o setor de atuação da empresa e legibilidade das notas explicativas. O porte da empresa, o fato de serem auditadas por grandes firmas, emitirem ou não ADR e a performance no período também apresentaram relação estatisticamente significativa e positiva com o tamanho das notas explicativas divulgadas. Este trabalho contribui para a literatura nacional ao demonstrar que os esforços por parte de órgãos reguladores e agentes de mercado em busca de melhor qualidade nas divulgações contábil-financeiras estão surtindo algum efeito na elaboração das notas explicativas. / This paper investigates the effects of OCPC07 on the readability and length of explanatory notes issued by publicly traded companies. As a complementary objective, we sought to understand which set of characteristics of the companies determine the degree of legibility and the length of its explanatory notes. A sample of 163 publicly traded companies with data for the years 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 was collected. As a proxy for measuring the complexity of the texts were used the Flesch Index and the natural logarithm number of words in the texts of explanatory notes. To test the effects of OCPC07 on Financial Instruments and Risk Management on formal aspects of disclosures, a mean test was performed to verify if the difference between the means of the complexity proxies is significant in the pre- and post-disclosure periods of the guidance. To find the factors that impact the readability and length of the explanatory notes, an exploratory technique (Correspondence Analysis) and a confirmatory technique (Panel Data) were used to measure the relationship between complexity proxies and possible determinants factors. The results show that the readability of the explanatory notes did not change from 2013 to 2017. The difference in means of the Flesch Index was not significant. On the other hand, the size of the explanatory notes decreased during the studied period, so that the mean difference in the number of words was significant. The association test showed that companies with better performance are associated with more legible but longer explanatory notes. The panel data technique showed a statistically significant and positive relationship between the company\'s sector of activity and readability of the explanatory notes. The size of the company, the fact that large firms audited them, whether or not they issued ADR and the performance in the period also showed a statistically significant and positive relationship with the size of the explanatory notes disclosed. This work contributes to the national literature by demonstrating that efforts by regulatory agencies and market agents seeking better quality in accounting and financial disclosures are having some effect in the preparation of explanatory notes.