Readability and language complexity in old and new law study guides

This article explores linguistic reflexes of a move in South African university distance education towards more learner-orientated study material. In what ways might such material be said to be more accessible? Two aspects of accessibility, namely readability and complexity features, are focused on and these are compared by way of corpus analyses of an earlier, more content-orientated study guide introducing the theory of law and a later, more learner-orientated guide. The findings provide an account of some key linguistic characteristics that appear to underpin the enhanced accessibility of the latter guide

Corpus linguistics · Linguistics · Readability · Sociology · Computer Science · Interpreting and Communication in Healthcare · linguistics and terminology studies · Philosophy · Translation Studies and Practices

• Corpus Linguistics

  Open Access•Douglas Biber, Susan Conrad et al.•Corpus Linguistics•1998

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• Variation across Speech and Writing

  Open Access•Douglas Biber•Variation Across Speech and Writing•1988

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• English for Specific Purposes

  Brian Paltridge, Sue Starfield•Handbook of Research in Second…•2016

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• On the complexity of discourse complexity

  Douglas Biber•Discourse Processes•1992

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