Readability Indices and Their Effect on Technical Content Writing

Common readability formulas aim to describe the understandability of a given text for a defined context. This study used the context of technical documentation and designed a readability formula to better describe the understandability of that context. This was done by gathering a dataset of technical documentation provided by Intuillion, a company specializing in technical documentation, and completing a multiple linear regression with the average readability score as the dependent variable and the readability statistics for each document as the independent variables. The regression coefficients were calculated and adjusted based on a weighting formula and they were applied to the final formula. This formula is intended specifically for technical documentation and produces results based on a new index rather than grade level.