CHED 1702 |
| The perception of many students is that their chemistry textbooks are difficult to read. Textbooks often present too many concepts at once and contain numerous vocabulary words in a unit. The reading level, also known as the readability level, is an important factor to be considered during textbook selection. Our work demonstrates that chemistry textbooks typically are written at a reading level above college students' abilities. Numerous college chemistry textbooks used throughout an undergraduate chemistry program (from Introductory Chemistry to Physical Chemistry) were analyzed for their readability level using several standard readability formulas and graphs. Results of this work show that organic and biochemistry textbooks are the most difficult to read due to the extensive use of chemical nomenclature. Readability levels of textbooks in the various chemical disciplines will be discussed. |
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Communicating Chemistry
8:30 AM-11:55 AM, Wednesday, March 28, 2007 McCormick Place North -- Room N227B, Level 2, Oral
Division of Chemical Education |