Writing Style, Readability, and Communication Vagueness as a Predictor of the Use of Visual Displays among Manuscripts Submitted to Research in the Schools.

In a previous editorial, we examined the concept of displaying with creativity, which involves using visual displays--namely, tables and figures--for the purpose of exploration, communication, calculation, storage, and decoration. Moreover, we documented that among manuscripts submitted to the journal Research in the Schools (RITS) over a 4-year period, a significant proportion of manuscripts (i.e., 19.7%) did not contain any visual displays, with a statistically significantly and practically significantly higher proportion of manuscripts containing tables than figures, and with the qualitative research manuscripts containing statistically significantly and practically significantly fewer visual displays than did both the quantitative research manuscripts and the mixed methods research manuscripts (Cohen's d = 1.09 and 0.93, respectively). Most notably, manuscripts that received a decision of either accept or revise-and-resubmit were statistically significantly (Cramer's V = .32) and practically significantly (Odds Ratio = 2.04; 95% confidence interval = 1.33, 3.12) more likely to contain one or more visual displays than were manuscripts that received a decision of reject (66.7%). In an attempt to understand further the role that visual displays play in manuscripts, we examined, in 71 manuscripts submitted to RITS, the relationship between the use of visual displays and the following predictor variables: readability, writing style, and communication vagueness. Findings revealed that all three sets of predictor variables were statistically significantly and practically significantly related to the use of visual displays. Implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]