The study begins from two premises not previously considered together: that written communication represents a social reality sui generis, and that this social reality is constituted in the medium of writing. The authors invoke a new understanding of the concept of readability as a fundamental condition for communication with and through writing, and elaborate its theoretical and empirical implications.

Heiko Hausendorf, Wolfgang Kesselheim, Hiloko Kato and Martina Breitholz, University of Zurich, Switzerland.