Record Details

Textual complexity of standard conditions used in the construction industry

Construction Economics and Building

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Field Value
 
Title Textual complexity of standard conditions used in the construction industry
 
Creator Rameezdeen, Raufdeen
Rodrigo, Anushi
 
Subject Construction; Contract administration; Law
Readability, Clarity, Comprehension, Construction, Contract
Construction
 
Description Clearly written communication aids the understanding of construction contracts, resulting in less disputation. Past research, using opinion surveys rather than objective criteria, shows that construction contracts lack clarity and standard forms have become complex over time. The study outlined in this paper uses three objective measures of clarity developed by linguists to establish the readability of construction contracts. In addition, thirty industry professionals participated in a Cloze Test which measured the level of comprehension of clauses concerning disputes. The study verifies that contract conditions are very difficult to read, with college level reading skills needed to comprehend half of the clauses. However, the hypothesis that standard forms have become complex over time was not supported by the study. The study establishes a linear relationship between readability and comprehension, proving the hypothesis that improved readability increases the comprehension of a contract clause. 
 
Publisher UTS ePRESS
 
Contributor University of Moratuwa Sri Lanka
University of South Australia
 
Date 2013-03-08
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
—
Content analysis, quazi-experiment
 
Format application/pdf
 
Identifier http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/AJCEB/article/view/3046
10.5130/AJCEB.v13i1.3046
 
Source Construction Economics and Building; Vol 13, No 1 (2013): AJCEB; 1-12
2204-9029
 
Language eng
 
Relation http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/AJCEB/article/view/3046/3404
 
Coverage Sri Lanka
1969 - to date
30 professionals; 11 experts; 4 documents
 
Rights Copyright (c) 2013 Raufdeen Rameezdeen, Anushi Rodrigo
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0