Book excerpt: Excerpt from How to Measure Other studies have been made. One of similar character, which has led to the formation of a spelling scale, was conducted by Dr. Leonard P. Ayres. Dr. Ayres examined a total Of words written by 2500 different persons. This was a summary of previous studies. The first of these studies included in all about words taken from standard literary selections. The second was an analysis of 250 different articles which appeared in four Sunday news papers published in Buffalo. The third consisted of the tabulations of words from 2000 Short business letters. The fourth consisted of some words taken from the family correspondence of 13 adults. The Ayres study has the advantage of being based upon the words used by adults, and if we assume that the schools must prepare for active social participation on the adult level, then certainly Dr. Ayres' study would be above criticism from the standpoint Of determining the fundamental words of the English language in common use for writing purposes. The Jones study and the Ayres study are in complete agree ment as to the simplicity and small compass of the writing vocabulary. Any adequate test must be based upon the words of the language that are in common use and fundamental in written work. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.