Discusses design issues for interactive multimedia. Notes that technical communication instructors must consider navigational aids, the degree of control a user should have, audio cues, color and typographical elements, visual elements, and copyright issues. (RS)

Explores the centrality of genre to print-driven literacy teaching and learning. Discusses the disjunction for many people between the print and digital or media texts they read and write. Contends there is a need for genre-focused theories and practices of literacy education that explicitly attend to the characteristics of digital texts. (PM)

Argues that contemporary screenwriters have much to learn from journalism and from theater, especially in the move away from the linearity of the high-concept film to a richer, more complex screen story. Examines the writing skills and techniques of journalist and playwrights in developing both foreground and background stories. (KEH)

Examines the effects of sentence underlining on retention and recall. Finds that underlining helped below average students sort out superordinate ideas, and with review added, underlining subordinate sentences increased retention of subordinate without decreasing retention of superordinate sentences. (MS)

Discussion of learner preferences for text densities on computer screen displays highlights two studies of college students that compared preferences for multiple or single screen presentations with high-, medium-, or low-density screens from an actual course using computer-assisted instruction. Results are analyzed, and further research needs are…

Examines the differences between divided and alternating patterns of comparison-contrast text structures and reports on the effects these patterns exert on the performance of college developmental readers. Concludes that the type of comparison-contrast structure does not significantly effect comprehension and that, overall, developmental readers…

Presents a model for electronic books based on the paper book metaphor. Discussion includes how the book evolves under the effects of its functional components; the use and impact of the model for organizing and presenting electronic documents in the context of electronic publishing; and the possible applications of a system based on the model.…

Describes the development and activities of the Center for Electronic Texts in the Humanities, established by Princeton University and Rutgers University to provide a national focus for the development, dissemination, and use of electronic texts in the humanities. Sidebars explain the Text Encoding Initiative and Standard Generalized Markup…

Examines effects on recall and comprehension of a passage from a fourth-grade textbook and versions revised for greater coherence or to exhibit voice. Finds that, immediately after reading, the voiced coherent passage held significant advantage over all other passages in both recall and comprehension. Finds similar, though statistically…

Compiles a list of strategies (culled from 46 postsecondary reading textbooks) that can prove useful as instructional aids when teaching developmental college readers how to deal with considerate and inconsiderate text. Notes that many of the strategies included in the textbooks were vague, incomplete, and lacked a real instructional component and…

It is suggested that a title provides the key component in a reader's ability to interpret a text. Experiments conducted with short news texts demonstrate that a title that is too vague, general, or inadequate to the main idea of the text entails a longer reading time or deficiencies in comprehension. (eight references) (LB)

Two experiments with 188 college students investigated the facilitative effect of typographical signals such as underlining, headings, or other devices to help readers identify specific points. Results do not support a general facilitative effect of typographical signals but suggest that use of signals depends on the reader's strategic processing.…

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)

Classifies the various forms that exist in a type of poetry dubbed "burstnorm" poetry, a form of lyrical poetry. Differentiates burstnorm from two other types, "plaintext" and "songmode poetry." Describes three types of burstnorm poetry: surrealistic, pluraesthetic, and language poetry. Discusses further subtypes of…

Several examples of genre analysis are examined to identify criteria employed for the identification of textual boundaries. The conclusion is that there are nonlinguistic reasons for generic staging in texts and that the search for structural divisions is a search for cognitive boundaries in terms of convention, appropriacy, and content. (42…