A STUDY OF THE COMPREHENSIBILITY OF AUTOMOBILE RECALL LETTERS

In response to a 1982 GAO report criticizing the way recall letters are written, NHTSA called upon researchers at the Document Design Center at the American Institutes for Research to conduct a study of the comprehensibility of automobile recall letters. Using a paraphrase task and multiple-choice questions, the researchers investigated the comprehensibility of three versions of the same recall letter: an Original version, based on a real recall letter; a Readability version, written according to the parameters of a readability formula; and a Guidelines version, written according to the Document Design Center's research-based guidelines for organizing, writing, and designing documents. Research subjects were 56 people waiting for their cars to be serviced or repaired at three automobile service centers in the Washington, D.C. area. Each subject was randomly assigned to one of three groups and was tested on one version of the letter. Results from the paraphrase task showed that the Guidelines group made significantly fewer errors and, in general, understood the recall letter better than the other two groups. The study concludes with a set of suggested guidelines for producing more understandable recall letters.

• Corporate Authors:

  American Institutes for Research

  1000 Thomas Jefferson Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20007-3835

  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

  Office of Defects Investigation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • CHARROW, V R
• Publication Date: 1983-4-29

Media Info

• Features: Appendices; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 22 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automobiles; Communication; Defects; Guidelines; Legibility; Lettering; Recall campaigns
• Uncontrolled Terms: Readability
• Old TRIS Terms: Communicating; Letters
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Society; I10: Economics and Administration;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00396132
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Report/Paper Numbers: Final Rpt., HS-806 415
• Contract Numbers: DTNH22-82-C-01216
• Files: HSL, TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Aug 31 1985 12:00AM