Problems in public documents

The failure to understand and use public documents correctly is a serious problem. Several studies are presented which attempt to identify the aspects of documents related to the lack of understanding. Different approaches are used, including a critical incident survey, a ranking of document difficulty, correlational studies, and an information processing analysis of document users' tasks. The major conclusion is that most problems are caused by the failure to consider the requirements of a document from the perspective of the document's audience

Published online: 01 January 1981
https://doi.org/10.1075/idj.2.3-4.02ros