Rudolf Franz Flesch (8 May 1911 – 5 October 1986) was an Austrian-born naturalized American author (noted for his book ''Why Johnny Can't Read''), and also a readability expert and writing consultant who was a vigorous proponent of plain English in the United States. He created the Flesch Reading Ease test and was co-creator of the Flesch–Kincaid readability tests. Flesch advocated use of phonics rather than sight reading to enable students to sound-out unfamiliar words.
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