Paragraphs which contain a topic sentence and other highly related supportive information lead to better comprehension and recall than paragraphs constructed in a less organized fashion. (MKM)

Several theories of story structure are reviewed in this paper, including those of D. Rumelhart, R. Schank, and T. van Dijk. Examples are given of Rumelhart's story grammar consisting of elements such as setting, episodes, events, and reactions that must be present to form a coherent structure. Schank's contribution to story structure theory is…

Reviews research which indicates that children should be taught to consider their purpose for reading and should receive feedback on whether they have achieved their purpose. (MKM)

A complete analysis of a story's structure must rely on more than a simple grammar of story components; it requires a consideration of the characters' plans as they are stated or implied in the story. Furthermore, these plans are recognized as the characters' beliefs, and beliefs about interactions among plans are crucial determinants of a story's…

Describes documents in the ERIC data base that review research on schemata and reading comprehension and discuss the implications of using the schemata paradigm in educational research and practice. (MKM)

Argues that there is a sequence of decision making from curriculum goals to text function to text form, but that only enlightened educators follow it. Proposes additional research into the nature of the reader-text interaction. (MKM)

One of the most important functions for metadiscourse (reading directives) is to serve as textual relevance cues. Readers must use metadiscourse to determine the specific task or communicative context for understanding the total meaning of a text. Some of the more common types of metadiscourse include (1) hedges--words used to convey a note of…

Shows how teachers can use concepts from discourse analysis to help students who have difficulty in understanding the relationships between and within sentences. (EL)

This paper discusses discourse comprehension with respect to individual differences. First, some general principles of discourse structure and the processing of discourse are presented. These principles emphasize the role of sentence and thematic structure. Second, possible sources of individual differences in discourse processing are discussed.…

Suggests using visual cues such as boldface type, indenting, and color coding to help students identify important words in sentences and relationships between sentences. (MKM)

Describes four basic features that distinguish narrative from expository discourse and suggests that teachers who recognize those differences can guide their students to use reading strategies appropriate to particular text structures. (HOD)

Describes research conducted in France on text readability and suggests that readability formulas give high scores to redundant texts that have no great interest and penalize texts with original information. Argues that a coefficient should be incorporated into readability formulas that reflects the nature of the text. (MKM)

Reports on research that reviewed 142 current middle and secondary school content materials to discover the organizational patterns used in each. Concludes that four such patterns are commonly used: enumeration, relationship, persuasive, and problem solving. Discusses each pattern and how it affects comprehension. (FL)

A study was conducted to determine whether children in revising their writing to accommodate new information would make corresponding textual changes to preserve appropriate focus and cohesion. The subjects, 48 children each from grades three, six, and nine, were presented with a task that involved descriptions of pictures with incongruent…

Argues that the perception of cohesion is an important factor in reading development. Suggests that teachers familiar with the devices that make text can help readers keep on track during comprehension. (FL)