Review of Aspects of readability in the social studies

Abstract

Reviews the book Aspects of readability in the social studies by Eleanor M. Peterson (see record 1955-01470-000 ). Scientific interest in readability has increased greatly in recent years, both in the development of measures and in their application to printed material. Peterson's book is an addition to the growing literature in this field. It differs from most previous work, however, in two ways. First, Peterson has attempted to avoid the better known (and better investigated) aspects of readability--vocabulary difficulty, sentence length, sentence structure, etc.--and has concentrated on two that are relatively less well known, the organization of material and its interest value to the reader. The importance of these two aspects has long been recognized, but so also has the difficulty encountered in trying to measure them objectively. The second difference is that Peterson has presented a study of the effects of varied material upon the tested comprehension of students. This pioneer study, as it stands, provides both a stimulus for future studies and valuable suggestions for the practicing textbook writer and teacher to follow. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)