Discusses the use of the Lexile Framework(R) in several areas. Lexiles have been established for various job groups, and they may serve as an indication of reading ability for a given job. The uses of lexiles in school and in reading education are discussed, as is the achievement of Lexile reading abilities as indicators of probable income. (SLD)

Finds layout of a list affects the way it is read and understood; recall for separately arranged lists in text was better than that for continuously arranged lists, and notes a difference in reading patterns between the two layouts; and a separated list allowed readers to reread the points selectively, while a continuous list made readers reread…

Reports that although a rhetoric of visible text based on page layout and various design features has been defined, what a writer should know about design is rarely covered. Describes and demonstrates a scope and sequence of learning that encourages writers to develop skills as text designers. Introduces helpful literature that displays visually…

Examines existence and placement of main ideas in non-fiction best-sellers. Concludes that writers of popular non-fiction use main ideas and place these ideas in prominent positions. Offers support for teaching main idea in reading classes. (RS)

Describes the "story face," an adaptation of story mapping that provides a visual framework for understanding, identifying, and remembering elements in narrative text. Discusses several strengths of the story face strategy used with students in grades 1-5: easy to construct, easy to remember, can guide retelling, is collaboratively…

Offers new perspectives and theoretical tools to interpret and appreciate the complex relationships that can exist between words and pictures. Analyzes the spectrum of text/image interaction and explores several picturebooks from different countries to uncover a number of intriguing dynamics ranging from the simple to the highly elaborate. (SC)

Considers how psychological models of first language (L1) textual comprehension distinguish between expository and narrative texts but are unclear on differences of inference generation between the two types of tests in a second language (L2). Shows that subjects generated more inferences for narrative texts while exhibiting more miscomprehension…

Examines journalism students' responses to a news story containing multiple sources where one side is presented in direct quotation form and the other side is presented in paraphrased form. Shows that advanced journalism students evaluated the story as significantly less balanced and significantly less fair than did beginning journalism students.…

Describes some of the factors that affect computer monitor display design and provides suggestions and insights into how screen displays can be designed more effectively. Topics include color, font choices, organizational structure of text, space outline, and general principles. (Author/LRW)

Derrida's archive, broadly speaking, is brilliantly mad, for he digs exegetically into the most difficult textual material and combines the most unlikely texts--from Socrates to Freud, from postcards to encyclopedias, from madness(es) to the archive, from primal scenes to death. In this paper, the author would like to do a brief study of the…

The author examined memory for text in terms of the independent influences of semantic knowledge associations and text organization. Semantic associations were operationalized as the semantic relatedness between individual text concepts and the text as a whole and assessed with latent semantic analysis. The author assessed text organization by…

There appears to be little research on the standard of post-16 students' writing and how it can be improved. In respect of such students, the focus of teaching professionals seems to be on content rather than on the writing process; arguably this leads to weaknesses in written expression. This article examines some current research and follows one…

Teachers can use comics for reading instruction by capitalizing on their colorful graphic representation. Technology and reading are wed during the use of the Internet, and readers must rely on their visual literacy skills--a group of vision competencies people can hone for comprehension. This article reports on strategies for developing visual…

"Verbal atom cracking," according to Kenneth Burke, entails a process where the reader reconstructs what the writer has constructed--a necessary process before the reader can begin deconstructing. Foregrounding opposites, rather than looking for apposites, may not be the best way to approach discourse that covers especially esoteric…

This paper analyzes the relative contributions of general reading comprehension and domain knowledge to subject matter text learning. The paper points out the limits of each factor in explaining text learning and summarizes some recent studies that support the complementary role played by each factor. A two-factor account of text learning (general…