Proposes a new taxonomy for classifying the graphic cues commonly used in visually informative text. Subsumes spatial and mark cueing (lines such as dividers, guidelines, network links, and visual tags) under a new concept called diagraphic cueing. Surveys various forms of graphic cues. (RS)

Muses on the meaning of last month's column, chides instructional materials that include instructions on how and what to think about their contents, and lists a large number of books that the author recently enjoyed reading. (SR)

Looks back at 150 years of writing for children in Australia through the illumination cast by Wolfgang Iser's notion of "the implied reader." Suggests that the implied reader in 1841 was of the educated elite; by 1941 the reader was more likely to be middle-class with popular tastes and interests; and the reader of 1991 reflected a…

Discusses and assesses the writings and the work of author Arthur Ransome, a writer of children's literature in the 1930s. Argues that Ransome always wrote well, took pains to provide children with adventures that could very nearly have happened, and occasionally "wrote well enough for adults, too." (SR)

Presents the first part of a six-part series reporting on a research project to investigate how students make sense of a text, what disempowers meaning making, what empowers meaning making, how readings might be meaningfully assessed, and how readers might be empowered in classrooms. Invites readers to join in the investigation. (SR)

Provides evidence (based on studies of college-entrant essays) that readers form definite impressions of the writer's personality from the text, that these impressions have an important effect on the acceptance of the writer's message, and that information about the reader's perception of the writer's personality can play a critical role in…

Discusses the difference it makes when readers believe in the stories they read. Claims that readers should practice "methodological belief," and that the value of doing so lies in expanding consciousness, choices, and the search for common ground. (SR)

Outlines an instructional strategy to be used with postsecondary reading students to help them actively engage with text through the use of elaborations. (SR)

Argues that recognition of the reader's role in the production of meanings in literary works has major consequences for the theory, research, and teaching of literature. Discusses the need to include the reader's role when writing the history of literature; develop new language for the description of the meanings of works; and develop new models…

Introduces and discusses briefly 10 multimedia products that are fun, useful, and that can teach a lot about communicating technical and business information. Discusses seven things that designers can learn from such examples. (SR)

Describes a theory of readers, reading, and text based on an interpretation of one incident involving the author and his daughter. Regards current understandings about readers, reading, and texts not as firm propositions but as fragile potentials. (RS)

Argues that technical writers must construct proper contexts for readers' understanding. Discusses reader-oriented syntax, rhetorical confidence, and three kinds of context qualifiers. Offers various examples. (SR)

In three experiments, 172 college students repeatedly read and recalled stories presented in good and poor form to determine whether the memory-enhancing effect of good text organization is transitory or long-lasting and whether it pertains to forgetting as well as learning. Advantages of good form are discussed. (SLD)

Investigates the relationship between text type, tone, and readers' responses of 58 students. Finds that narrative and expository text were not responded to differently. Finds that subjects made fewer text-based and more reader-based statements when reading descriptive text than when reading expository or narrative text. (MG)

Urges teachers of literature to respect and honor the simplicity of the common reader, marginalized among the experts. Advocates a kind of reading that includes them and does not undermine their confidence in themselves as readers and in the text as readable. Urges teachers to render simplicity more complex and to rejoin the common reader. (SR)