Advertising: Readability “Readability Levels of Magazine Ads,” by F. K. Shuptrine and D. D. McVicker, is an article in the Journal of Advertising Research.

(For more information, find the web site for DASL, the Carnegie Mellon University Data and Story Library. Look in Data Subjects under Consumer and then Magazine Ads Readability file.) The following is a list of the number of three-syllable (or longer) words in advertising copy of randomly selected magazine advertisements.

34 21 37 31 10 24 39 10 17 18 32 17 3 10 6 5 6 6 13 22 25 3 5 2 9 3 0 4 29 26 5 5 24 15 3 8 16 9 10 3 12 10 10 10 11 12 13 1 9 43 13 14 32 24 15 Use eight classes.AppendixLO1