As indicated in the previous Unit, the readability of a text is only partially due to its language materials.

     Consistency of point of view, coherence, text layout on a page (including use of subsections), use of diagrams, maps, charts, or other illustrations make the text more accessible as a system of information (not just as a system of language).

     The reader's interest in or familiarity with the topic or with the context of the text, individual prior knowledge and ability to activate schema all make one text potentially more readable to a particular group than other texts are:  physicists read physics texts more easily than others do, no matter in what language.
 
     Many kinds of knowledge beyond knowledge of language (semantics and syntax) thus contribute to making a particular text readable.  The goal of this unit is to help you experience how readability, as defined in Unit 1, can be enhanced in different ways, not only through an individual's increased abilities in semantics and morphosyntax.  Most particularly, this Unit exemplifies a number of ways a text can be made readable for a reader confronting a new reading situation.