After James Rawlings's talk to my A2s about searching databases, I have given more thought to advanced searches and came across the option of having Google searches annotated with 'reading level'. Fascinated, I wondered how it was worked out. Google are, apparently, keeping their cards close to their chest on that one but here are some people speculating. This would make a fantastic investigation - what the effect of different synonymous search terms had on the reported reading level of the results and how reasonably reflective that might be of the actual demands of the texts - I was astonished to find a bit of Mervyn Peake's writing flagged as 'basic'. There would be great theory links to reading level tests like Flesch and an opportunity to do some fab quantitative and qualitative analysis and the search topic could play to students' interests.
Also, those looking to break themselves in gently with their reading on a topic might find it a useful indicator! If anyone uses it, please let me know how relevant it was.
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