How do you determine the difficulty of individual words?

[russgrd2 at psych1.psy.sunysb.edu]

I need to write a story in which I manipulate the difficulty of individual
words.  I need a version with easy to read words and a version with hard to
read words.  I have not been able to locate an objective method for
determining the difficulty of these words.  Is anyone aware of a method
that might help me in this task?

--Brett Stoltz

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|  Brett Stoltz
|  Department of Psychology
|  SUNY at Stony Brook
|  Stony Brook, NY  11794-1200
|  voice: (516) 632-7870
|  fax:   (516) 632-7871
|  e-mail: russgrd2 at psych1.psy.sunysb.edu
|  Stony Brook Reading and Language Project
|  http://www.read+lang.sbs.sunysb.edu/
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