Automated Evaluation of Text and Discourse with Coh-Metrix

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.

Danielle S. McNamara is a professor in the Psychology Department and Senior Scientist in the Learning Sciences Institute at Arizona State University.
Arthur C. Graesser is a professor in the Department of Psychology and the Institute for Intelligent Systems at the University of Memphis and is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Education at the University of Oxford.
Philip McCarthy is an Assistant Professor at the University of Memphis and a member of the Institute for Intelligent Systems.
Zhiqiang Cai is a research assistant professor in the Institute for Intelligent Systems at the University of Memphis.