Luxfield Text Grading and Editing Services
Aids to Text Grading: Sky-line displays
CADET skyline displays (1)
The display shows the readability ratings of part of a long text. The horizontal graphic display is in fact a bar chart, a line of readability plots for every possible 100-word sample of text. Some basic whole-text data is shown at the top of the bar-chart display. The horizonal line cutting through the display indicates the average readability reading for the entire text.
Below the bar chart is the portion of the text to which the plots apply. To the right of that is part of the display control panel.
The controls permit the user to scroll through the entire bar chart from beginning to end of the text in a matter of seconds.
CADET skyline displays (2)
It is possible to change the spread of the bars in the bar-chart. They can be show further apart than those in the previous display, or side by side with all intervening space ommitted - as in this example, known as the 'sky-line'.
Scanning through the display quickly gives an immediate impression as to (1) how far a text fluctuates above or below average -- some movement is, of course, desirable; (2) whether or not the text has a tendency to drift overall from mainly high readings to low, or mainly low to high; (3) whether or not there are any startling anomalies - sudden breaks into very high ratings, or drops into low.
CADET skyline displays(3)
A number of different readability formula options are available. This one shows ratings based on the classic 'FOG' formula; the previous example showed what is known as the Automatic Readability Index (ARI), - a version of the basic formula said to have been devised especially for computer use; and the first the formula worked out by Karl Flesch.