Reviews models of reading performance as an organizing framework for understanding findings from empirical studies of text and reader factors. Reviews numerous empirical studies of text design and reader variables and their effects on comprehension. Aims to help readers understand this research and its implications in document design decisions.…

Examines the process of review as a method of formative evaluation of texts. Bases the description on three empirical studies of professional writing practices including the goals of review, the actors involved in the process, the moments in the text production process that review is taking place, and the procedures followed. (SG)

Investigates whether advance organizers facilitate the acquisition of subordinate information from text. Examines the influences of reader's background knowledge, advance organizers, relative importance of idea units, and idea units' position within a text structure on the recall of textual information. (SR)

Presents a review of the literature on reader-focused text evaluation. Gives an account of the document characteristics that can be evaluated and considers the possible functions of evaluations making a distinction between verifying, troubleshooting, and choice-supporting research. Presents an overview of methods appropriate for the various…

Proposes that readability formulas cannot predict text difficulty. Presents results of an experiment designed to demonstrate that "text difficulty" is determined by individual differences (perception) and not by the objective qualities of a text. (NH)

Studies empirically the effects on reader performance of reduced text structure in technical writing texts. Reveals that removal of cues to local coherence produced reliable decrements in reader performance. Discusses results with regard to questions of information design. (HB)

Determines that the complexity of syntax does not significantly affect reading comprehension of native and non-native English speakers when reading technical writing. Finds no significant differences between subgroups reading an authentic computer science text and those reading a syntactically adapted text, either in comprehension or in speed. (MG)

Two studies examined the validity of a model of procedural document processing, and the relationships among document features, reader characteristics, and successful completion of a button-sewing task. The first study tested three information sources. Subjects were 12 seventh-grade, 12 tenth-grade, and 12 adult students who used 2 commercially…

Investigates the role of signaling (structural cues that announce or emphasize content or reveal content relationships) in helping good readers comprehend expository text. Finds that signals do improve a reader's comprehension, particularly comprehension two weeks after the reading of a passage and comprehension of superordinate and superordinate…

Examines the effects on comprehension of instructing native English speakers in the organization of a scientific journal article written in French. Finds a significant main effect for instruction in text structure when the text was in canonical experimental report order and no significant difference when the text order was scrambled. (RS)