Methodological themes

Abstract

The cloze procedure has been seen by accounting researchers as a useful tool for investigating the communicative effectiveness of accounting narratives. Compared with text‐based readability measures, such as the Flesch test, the cloze procedure has often been viewed as an alternative and superior method of measuring understandability. Provides a critical review of the accounting and educational cloze‐based literature. In particular, questions the validity of the cloze procedure, the cloze procedure’s measurement of understandability, and the correctness of the criterion reference scores traditionally used to interpret cloze scores. Concludes that these legitimate concerns about the cloze procedure must be taken into account when the results of cloze‐based accounting research studies are evaluated. Repeats calls for further research to establish the validity of the cloze procedure in the accounting domain and to support the results of existing studies.