Review of How to test readability

Abstract

Reviews the book "How to test readability" by Rudolph Flesch (1951). Early pages of the manual reprint most of a 1948 article from this journal which presented Flesch's revised readability formula. This how-to-do-it section is supplemented by eleven examples of material ranging from the "Bible" to the "Adventures of Huckkberry Finn" analyzed for their readability scores. In these examples, sentence breaks are indicated, personal words are bold-faced and quantitative values for each formula element are provided. These paragraphs can be of great usefulness as standards both for training analysts to use the formula and for checking accuracy and reliability of trained analysts. Two nomographs are provided as calculation aids. All and all, the reviewer notes that this is a valuable manual, whose modest price and excellent content will have wide appeal for those concerned with improved written communication. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)