Is wikipedia too difficult?: comparative analysis of readability of wikipedia, simple wikipedia and britannica

Abstract

Readability is one of key factors determining document quality and reader's satisfaction. In this paper we analyze readability of Wikipedia, which is a popular source of information for searchers about unknown topics. Although Wikipedia articles are frequently listed by search engines on top ranks, they are often too difficult for average readers searching information about difficult queries. We examine the average readability of content in Wikipedia and compare it to the one in Simple Wikipedia and Britannica. Next, we investigate readability of selected categories in Wikipedia. Apart from standard readability measures we use some new metrics based on words' popularity and their distributions across different document genres and topics.