The nonlinear organization of text on the World Wide Web allows greater user control. However, materials must be structured coherently by establishing associative and conceptual links without eliminating multiple pathways. A constructivist approach permits clear mental representation of concepts and the freedom to explore them. (SK)

Notes undergraduate students read both a one-sided text on educational reform and a two-sided nonrefutational text on the V-chip; and that they completed topic-specific beliefs, knowledge, and interest measures and reacted to specific text characteristics. Finds that although both forms of texts affected readers, the effects varied by the type of…

Presents ways that the learning of text structure can occur naturally for adolescents in a whole language framework. Offers five global contexts in which conceptualization, communication, collaboration can occur to help students use language and understand how text is organized. (RS)

Discusses ways in which sentences may be represented in a condensed form in graphic displays of a sentence dependency structure. A prototype of a text structure management system, TEXNET, is described; a quantitative evaluation of automatic abbreviation schemes is presented; full-text compression is discussed; and additional research is suggested.…

Investigates two characteristics of texts--structural importance and text-based interest--that affect what students remember from their reading of biography. Finds that interest has a powerful effect on recall for both good and poor readers. Finds that seductive details and main ideas were best remembered whereas details supporting the main idea…

Considers the stories that children read, hear, and make part of their lives. Focuses on the text with the understanding that texts live only when read by a person in a particular context. (MG)

Discusses students' ability to make correct judgments about the accuracy of information they read and describes a study of secondary school students that was designed to determine the value of headings and outlines in detecting false statements in text. Treatments for the experimental and control groups are described. (18 references) (LRW)

Argues that reading specialists' lack of success in persuading content area teachers to help their students read and study texts in social studies, science, and mathematics is a result of reading specialists' lack of careful thought about text structures. Discusses the text structures of textbooks in these content areas. (RS)

The study found that college student writers with learning disabilities (N=35) produced better coherent written text than did underprepared non-disabled students. LD writers appeared to understand text structure like normally achieving writers but, like the underprepared writers, they experienced difficulty in the production process. (Author/DB)

Reviews 10 of the 20 "Hob Stories" written by William Mayne. Discusses characteristics of the stories and compares them to the books Mayne has written for older children. (MG)

Discusses how to use text design to improve printed instructional materials. Topics discussed include text structuring; how readers process information; page layout; spacing; illustrative material; information mapping; verbal and visual cues; the use of headings; and typographical cues. (nine references) (LRW)

Describes a recursive transition network model that analyzes and represents a story as a causal network of categorized clauses and labeled relations. Reports on two experiments using procedural criteria to identify inferences and the assumptions that inferences operate over distances in the text and are transitive, resulting in a network…

Discusses a preliminary study of the effect of ballot interface design on voting behavior. Finds significant problems related to human factors and the organization of information on the ballot on mechanical and electronic voting machines. (RS)

Debates whether a text claiming to have scientific value is using seduction irresponsibly at the expense of the truth, and discusses who is the subject and who is the object of such seduction. It argues that, rather than being an assault against scientific ethics, seduction is a necessary premise for a sensible conversation to take place. (GR)

Investigates text cues and comprehension strategies used by competent readers comprehending lengthy written arguments. Finds that both text structure and signaling in introductions and conclusions consistently influenced the 12th-grade advanced placement English students' responses. Notes that these cues helped students recognize the argument…