Automation of improving document readability

Some documents are easier to read and understand than others. Formulae exist for scoring the Readability of documents. These scores estimate the number of years of education that a reader must have to understand that document. In many cases there are contractual, legal or regulatory specifications that mandate a maximum score for certain types of documents.; It is difficult and tedious to manually edit a document to attain a certain score. This thesis describes a computer program and database which were developed to test the hypothesis that an automated system could significantly assist in this process.; The described system was used to edit a set of sample documents, and the results show that such a system is feasible and practical.