Download Mikk_Textbook complicacy

Textbook complicacy and the
rules for clear writing
Jaan Mikk
04.12.2013
Components of text complicacy
• Long sentences may overhelm the working
memory
• Unknown words unable to create connections
• Abstract words are difficult because abstract
thinking developes step by step.
Constructions complicating sentences
(Granowsky & Botel, 1974)
Construction
Noun modifiers (adjectives)
Negatives
Infinitives as subjects
Passive
Dependent clauses
Comparatives
Participles
Added
complicacy
1
1
2
2
2
2
2
Long connections between words
• The resulting regionalization has applications
in developing our understanding of the social
and cultural complexion of Europe, and offers
potential insights into the long and short-term
dynamics of migration and residential mobility
(Longley et al., 2011).
• Connected words (in bold) are too far from
each other.
Assessing the familiarity of words
• Frequency dictionaires
• Dictionaires of scientific terms (in
mathematics etc.)
• Expert opininions
• Length of words
• Percentage of too long words.
Scale of noun terminologicality
• 1 - nouns of everyday use which are not terms
(table, horse),
• 2 - nominal terms of the same meaning in
everyday speech (velocity, acceleration),
• 3 - nouns, professional terms not used in
everyday speech (DNA, transcription).
The scale of noun abstractness
• 1 - nouns signifying directly perceivable objects
(e. g. ball, dog),
• 2 - nouns signifying perceivable activities and
phenomena (e. g. run, sunshine),
• 3 - nouns signifying directly imperceivable
notions (e. g. cause, function).
•
• We have found the correlation coefficient -0.53
twice and once -0.66 between the abstractness
level of a text and its acquisition level.
Validation of the components of
text complicacy
• 30 texts from popular-scientific books on
physics, chemistry, astronomy and biology.
The texts were from 107 up to 227 words long
• Experiments to measure the difficulty level of
the texts were carried out with more than
1000 upper grade students. We used cloze
procedure, answering questions, difficulty
ratings, and summing up the content of the
text. Every testee worked with every text.
Correlations of text features with the
percentage of unfilled blanks in cloze
procedure
Correlation
Sentence length in letter spaces
.47
Independent sentence length in letter spaces
.55
Word length in letters
.44
Percentage of nouns with abstract suffix “us”
.41
Abstractness of repeating in text nouns
.53
Percentage of words from a dictionary of .51
foreign words
Percentage of words in 12 letters or more
.52
Effective characteristics of
electronic textbooks
(Luik, 2004, 140 – 142)
• She used the material of 35 lessons from the
textbooks of different subjects.
• 54 students from 10th grade studied all the
lessons.
Correlations of the features of
electronic textbook with post-test
score
Characteristic
Bookmarks and return button
Percentage of familiar icons
Number of hyperlinks
Terminolocality of nouns
Analogies
Number of videos
Possibility to choose questions
New possibility to answer
r
0,41
0,36
-0,35
-0,47
0,34
-0,52
-0,52
-0,40
The components of complicacy of
verbal problems (Madis Lepik)
• Number of operations needed for the solution
of the problem
• Number of quantities (data) needed for the
solution but not mentioned in the text of the
problem
• Verbal complicacy of the problem
• Changing the units.
Inferences from the components
of textbook complicacy
• Find summary assessment of textbook
complicacy
• Give recommendations for changing the
complicacy (rules for clear writing).
Flesch Reading Ease formula
• The formula is based mainly on the McCall-Crabbs
reading test
• RE = 206.835 – 0.846wl – 1.015sl
•
wl — the number of syllables per 100 words,
sl — the mean sentence length in words.
• Multiple correlation coefficient was 0.70.
• The Reading Ease index varies from
• 0 — a very complicated text to
• 100 — a very comprehensible text
Flesch formula in Word
• Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then
click Word Options.
• Click Proofing.
• Make sure Check grammar with spelling is
selected.
• Under When correcting grammar in Word,
select the Show readability statistics check
box.
Usage of the Flesch formula
•
•
•
•
Write the text in Word.
Language editor should be English.
Vali menüüst: Language editor ABC.
Edit the text and at the end you see
readability statsistics
– Number of characters, words and sentences,
– Average length of words and sentences,
– Readability indexes.
Readability formula for Estonian texts
• C = 0. 131 X9 + 9.84X22 - 4,59
•
• C - text complicacy index (percentage of unfilled
and incorrectly filled blanks in cloze procedure),
• X9 - independent sentence length in letter spaces,
• X22 - abstractness of repeating nouns in the text
passage according to three-stage scale.
• The multiple correlation of the formula was 0.67
7
Chemistry
Percentage of underachievers
6
5
Estonian
Physics
4
3
History
Literature
2
Geography
Anatomy
1
0
13
16
19
22
25
Textbook readability in Form 8
28
Rules for clear writing
•
•
•
•
•
Avoid unknown words!
Be careful with new terms!
Prefere concrete words!
Avoid too long sentences!
Use clear structure of your presentation!
Introducing new notions
in science teaching (Usova, 1978)
• Finding out the main characteristics of the notion by
analysing relevant examples.
• Elaborating the definition of the notion.
• Analysing examples and non-examples of the notion.
• Differentiation of the notion from earlier acquired
notions.
• Exploring the relationship of the notion with other
notions.
• Application of the notion in solving problems.
• Systematisation of the notions.
Meta-analysis of studies of the
effect of using the rules (Klare, 1963)
Effect
Number of studies
(altogether 67)
Positive effect
46
No effect
9
Negative effect
12
Correlations of prior knowledge
with text characteristics
Charactereistic
r
Percentage of 12 and more character words -0,50
Independent sentence length in characters
with spaces
Average abstactness of nouns repeating in
the text
Percentage of different unknown words
-0,49
-0,46
-0,50