A technique for measuring comprehension of lengthy prose is presented. The "textual segmentation" procedure requires subjects to partition text into complete, meaningful units such as paragraphs, chapters, and books. Potential applications of textual segmentation include measurement of reading comprehension, readability, and criteria for…

Reports on a survey of 32 adult fiction readers and their attitudes toward the kind of reading that they enjoy. (AEA)

Examines the poetry preferences of 792 children in grades one, two, and three in a national sampling. (HOD)

Points up the importance of encoding time to the global act of reading. (AEA)

Questions the validity of the Nelson-Denny Reading Test to measure growth in a rapid reading course for adults. (AEA)

Reports that the readability level of a document is a poor indicator of its comprehension for aged subjects and that simplifying the language of documents may not be sufficient in easing their comprehension difficulties. (FL)

The present experiment with retarded and normal readers was designed to test comprehension across major segmental boundaries, an aspect of syntax raised by generative grammars, and to relate the comprehension problem to other correlates of reading retardation by choosing a problem in which ordering strategies may be adopted. (Author/KC)

Reading ability and performance on the Matching Familiar Figures Test were compared for two samples of seven-year-old children. Considerably more of the poor readers than the main sample were found to be impulsive. There was a consistent tendency for girls to be more reflective than boys. (Author/KC)

Reports on a research project in which students read books considered to be funny by media specialists and rated them for their humor. Presents a list of the books read and the ratings provided for each by the students. (FL)

Reports that the substitution of a cloze instructional center for various reading centers improved students' reading comprehension and divergent production. (AEA)

Concludes that methodological problems must be overcome and certain critical assumptions validated before the results from oral reading error analysis can be used confidently. (AEA)

Reports the results of a study of 10th grade students that showed their comprehension improved when slash marks were used to divide the text into meaningful phrases. (AEA)

Reports that an investigation into the relationship between reading difficulty and maladjustment indicated that a significantly greater number of poor readers than normal readers were antisocial. Notes that the higher incidence of maladjustment was found in those poor readers with perceptual motor problems. (FL)

Examines the origin of the Delphi technique of needs assessment and explains how the technique may be used in determining a school's reading program needs. Discusses also how Delphi has been used as a teaching technique. (FL)

Reports that (1) the most common organizational pattern used by teachers for reading instruction is to divide the class into three subgroups and (2) students rarely move from one group to another. (FL)