Automated Evaluation of Text and Discourse with Coh-Metrix

This book describes Coh-Metrix, a powerful computational tool that provides a wide range of language and discourse measures.

Danielle S. McNamara (Author), Arthur C. Graesser (Author), Philip M. McCarthy (Author), Zhiqiang Cai (Author)

9780521137294, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 31 March 2014

289 pages, 9 b/w illus. 23 tables
22.7 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.47 kg

Coh-Metrix is among the broadest and most sophisticated automated textual assessment tools available today. Automated Evaluation of Text and Discourse with Coh-Metrix describes this computational tool, as well as the wide range of language and discourse measures it provides. Part I of the book focuses on the theoretical perspectives that led to the development of Coh-Metrix, its measures, and empirical work that has been conducted using this approach. Part II shifts to the practical arena, describing how to use Coh-Metrix and how to analyze, interpret, and describe results. Coh-Metrix opens the door to a new paradigm of research that coordinates studies of language, corpus analysis, computational linguistics, education, and cognitive science. This tool empowers anyone with an interest in text to pursue a wide array of previously unanswerable research questions.

Part I. Coh-Metrix: Theoretical, Technological, and Empirical Foundations: 1. What is text and why analyze it?
2. The importance of text cohesion
3. The science and technology that led to Coh-Metrix
4. Coh-Metrix measures
5. Coh-Metrix measures of text readability and easability
6. Using Coh-Metrix measures: studies of cohesion in text and writing
Part II. A Beginner's Guide to Writing Coh-Metrix Research: 7. The strategy: moves, frozen expressions, and the elevator pitch
8. The introduction
9. The corpus
10. The tool
11. The results
12. The discussion
Concluding remarks.

Subject Areas: Educational psychology [JNC], Psychology [JM], Linguistics [CF]