An analysis of the Danielson computerized readability program as applied to a corporation's news releases

In this study, a new computerized readability program designed to run on an IBM Personal Computer was used to analyze news releases from the public relations department of Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc., Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Developed by Dr. Wayne Danielson, a professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin and a pioneer in the computer automation of readability formulas, the program provided calculations and comparison of four readability formulas (the Flesch Reading Ease formula, the Farr-Jenkins-Paterson formula, the Danielson-Bryan formula and the Gunning Fog Index).

Over 120 pieces of text were typed into the computer and run through the Danielson program. Seven different readability predictors (four grade scores and three scale scores) were produced for each written passage. The purpose of this study was to use the data generated from the Martin Marietta Energy Systems readability study to make some general observations about the strengths and weaknesses of the Danielson computerized readability program.

Analysis of the data indicated that the Danielson program has merit in helping students gain general readability scores for their writing work, the purpose for which it was designed. Additionally, the program was found to be an adequate tool for analyzing (in a general way) the readability of a corporation's news releases. It produced a number of grade scores and scale scores, suggesting that it can be used to generate rough measures for various kinds of writing. The program was also inexpensive ($35), easy to use and efficient.

There were, however, deficiencies in the Danielson program that caused questions about its validity, reliability and accuracy to arise. Inconsistencies between grade scores and scale scores and computer counts and hand counts done on some of the releases showed that Danielson's program lacks precision. It became apparent that in adapting the readability formulas to the personal computer, Danielson made some arbitrary changes that altered the validity of the readability scores.