Measuring Readability Levels of Undergraduate Investment Textbooks

Abstract

Selection of a textbook for an introductory investment course can be challenging. Many criteria may be considered in such decisions, including a textbook’s pedagogical approach, end-of-chapter material, and instructor supplements. Faculty may also wish to consider a text’s readability, or the qualities of writing which are related to reader comprehension. Using the Flesch-Kincaid readability index, this study analyzes the predicted readability of five popular introductory investment textbooks. T-tests are performed to determine whether significant differences exist between the textbooks. Our results indicate that the Jordan/Miller/Dolvin textbook is the most readable while the Jones/Jensen textbook is the least readable among our sample. These findings can be useful to adopters and editors of introductory investment textbooks.