The Cloze Procedure: A Conspectus

Abstract

In 1953, Wilson Taylor (then a graduate student at the University of Illinois) introduced a technique for measuring the effectiveness of communication which he called the The name of this new psychological tool was derived from the Gestalt concept of Closure, (Rankin, 1959a,c), the tendency to complete a structural whole by filling in a missing gap. Taylor's paper (1956) helps to explain that the cloze procedure systematically deletes words in a prose selection (i.e. every nth word) and evaluates the success a reader has in accurately supplying the deleted words. After this paper several individuals helped to bring widespread attention to the cloze procedure. Among those were Weaver (1965), who provided an excellent survey; and Hafner (1966), who reported studies having implications for the classroom. Also Green (1968) was the chairman for a symposium that provided many new ideas germane to cloze research. Since the cloze procedure has become so widely used and highly respected, it is felt by the authors that research should be put into a concise form available to all interested individuals. This paper will provide a quick reference conspectus of the research.

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