Re: Hyphenation -- good research into reading speed and comprehension?

[JX Consulting <jx -at- jxconsulting -dot- com>]

> Here's one:
>
> http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/50026822-81706070/content~db=all~content=a749259579

Thanks for the link. However, as far as I can tell from the summary,  
that study is not about end-of-line hyphenation. It seems like it's a  
study about artifically inserting hyphen characters between morphemes  
in words, particularly nonwords such as  "dis-move", and presumably  
keeping the word together on the same line from how i read the  
summary. In other words help-ing dys-lex-ics with read-ing abil-ity by  
add-ing dash-es. I'd have to buy the article to quote the study  
directly.

I'm looking for end-of-line hyphenation research, where the 2nd half  
of the word is on the *next* line.

Apparently we've Gutenberg to "thank" for end-of-line hyphenation. :-)  
See my original email for more info...

If anyone knows of good research, please let me know.

Thanks,
    -- JX Bell
        Technical Communication Consultant
        JX Consulting



On Nov 13, 2009, at 10:17pm, JX Consulting wrote:

>
> Is there any good research into reading speed and comprehension of  
> unhyphenated English versus hyphenated English? I just mean  
> hyphenation due to end of line, not about words with naturally  
> having hyphens whereever they appear on the line :-)
>
> I'm skeptical about hyphenation of technical documentation.  Maybe  
> I'm wired differently than other folks, but it seems to hinder  
> comprehension and reading speed, as well as look distracting. Yeah,  
> I get it that lines can be more "full looking", but that's not even  
> necessarily more aesthetically pleasing. And for documentation,  
> we're optimizing for people actually reading it, especially quickly,  
> and learning quickly. And it doesn't seem worth it to me to  
> hyphenate if that's what we're going for.
>
> From what I've read online**, the hyphenation of words for line  
> length was originally just an artifact of the physical limitations  
> of old moveable type presses, and just got carried over into the  
> future from there.
>
> I want to know the facts on this. Is there any reputable research  
> about the actual reading of hyphenated English? I am curious about  
> various types of data: (1) neurotypical folks -- the general  
> population  (2) dyslexic populations (3) and of course folks leaning  
> towards Aspergers - people more likely to be readers of our  
> technical docs. :-)
>
> Thanks for any good tips!
>
>    -- JX Bell
>        Technical Communication Consultant
>        JX Consulting
>
>
> *** According to wikipedia, "Prior to Gutenberg setting the first  
> lines printed in the Western world with movable type, there was no  
> need for hyphens or the justification of lines to equal length. The  
> Gutenberg printing press required words made up of individual  
> letters of type to be held in place by a surrounding non-printing  
> rigid frame. Gutenberg solved the problem of making each line the  
> same length to fit the frame by inserting a hyphen as the last  
> element at the right side margin. This interrupted the letters in  
> the last word, requiring the remaining letters be carried over to  
> the start of the line below..." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyphenation
>
>
>

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