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, 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]