Investigates whether information abstracts reporting on empirical work possess a predictable discourse-level structure and whether there are lexical clues revealing this structure. Results support the presence of a detectable structure in the text-type of empirical abstracts, which may be of use in a variety of text-based information processing…

Reports the means, standard deviations, and relevant statistics on an examination of the readability of 24 contemporary textbooks that employ a hybrid approach to the basic speech communication course. Discusses some strategies for developing reading skills. (KEH)

Reviews research in revising instructional text by examining multidisciplinary research in readability, text structure, text interestingness, expert revisers' strategies, and readers' comprehension strategies. Finds that much of this research is limited by a simplistic view of reading, the use of experimentally contrived texts and contexts, and a…

Second, fourth, and sixth graders were given passage of text whose material could be represented as four-level class inclusion hierarchy. Students were asked to construct external representation of passage and answer questions that required them to reason about contents of passage. Quality of representation and performance on question tasks were…

The accuracy of 210 college undergraduates' judgments of the relative learnability of original (Army training manuals) and rewritten (war or cultural histories) versions of 20 pairs of texts of known difficulty was studied. Students were 95 percent accurate in their judgments of learnability. Implications for college textbook selection are…

Effects on comprehension of a text structure used primarily in science and mathematics to present principles and associated proofs were studied for 70 undergraduates in 3 experiments. Results suggest that the usual proof-first structure is more difficult than a principle-first structure and results in less complete text representation. (SLD)

The effect of equations in scientific proofs on readers' comprehension was studied. Forty college undergraduates solved unfamiliar physics problems with or without a traditional series of related equations. Verbal proofs produced better responses than did equation-based proofs. Equations in proofs cause readers to shift attention away from…

Adolescents with deafness or partial hearing were assessed on memory for relational and distinctive information when text structure and material concreteness were manipulated. Deaf and hard-of-hearing readers were less likely than hearing readers to integrate text information across idea units, although they may retain as much information from…

An approach to teaching and testing advanced French reading comprehension of expository social science texts is presented within a "communicative-cognitive" framework. Learners receive instructions that encourage them to perceive and use the writer's overall rhetorical scheme as a conceptual-functional framework for integrating the components.…

Over 700 mathematical textbooks and monographs (especially in Polish) were studied to identify specific features of proof construction. Segmentation, delimiters, and procedure schemes were key items in analysis. Reading strategies used in other subject areas normally do not transfer successfully to mathematics. (PDD)

Considers two very different fictional high school newspaper editorships to see how the "maestro" process works. Notes that the process is a management technique similar to brainstorming but in which one person keeps the planning meeting focused. Suggests that the effective maestro asks writers, photographers, and designers to trade places with…

Observes that the interpretation of literary texts is a multidimensional task requiring students to master a variety of skills and acquire factual knowledge. Argues that use of the World Wide Web allows for the creation of a virtual classroom where students explore historical and theoretical aspects of interpretation. (DSK)

Compares and contrasts chapters from two children's science textbooks, one published in 1992 in a traditional format, and the other in 1995 using a new format. Finds them very different in terms of structure and organization. Shows that children respond to these texts very differently. Shares some ideas about teaching with such texts. (SR)

Reviews research about the uses readers and writers make of text structure schemata and, additionally, about what reading-writing relationship research and collaborative learning research suggest for designing instruction to build schemata for text structure. Describes one in-process research study that attempts to address these issues. (SR)

Discussion of academic bibliographic instruction highlights an exercise in developing critical reading skills by reading and effectively reviewing ERIC abstracts. Topics include rhetoric and writing-based approaches in bibliographic instruction, sentence structure, text assessment, and automated bibliographic tools and interpreting text on a…