Working on the theory that intonation miscues caused by confusion over punctuation and other phrase boundaries will make the apprehension of text more difficult than necessary for young developing readers, a study reviewed the research and literature relevant to the effects of location of punctuation, phrasing, and line breaks in text and on the intonation and resulting comprehension and perception efforts of children. The findings provided some evidence to suggest the desirability of modifying textbook design for use with young, developing, unsophisticated readers. Among the recommendations made to textbook designers were the following: (1) use modified terminal punctuation for beginning and low ability readers, (2) use punctuation to indicate the boundaries between chunks of text, (3) consider the possibility of syllable duration and visual rhythm display in texts, (4) eliminate printed intonation cues in texts, (5) print phrasing of text in meaningful units to facilitate children's reading comprehension, (6) do not break chunked text due to lack of space at right margin, (7) make line breaks between phrases or toward the end of the sentence, (8) do not use "and" or prepositions at the beginning of a line of print, (9) eliminate sentences causing confused intonation from texts, and (10) provide information for dealing with intonation of text in teachers' manuals. (HOD)