Analyzes the portrayal of death and bereavement in children's literature, focusing on the central character in the book, the death, and the subsequent effect of the death on the central character. Reveals that characters exhibit stereotypical male/female behavior, with little portrayal of natural grief or changed life circumstances. (MM)

Concludes that the content of Farsi-language papers reflected the changing power structure in Iran during the revolution more than did the English-language papers. (FL)

Presents guidelines for using Jean Stafford's initiation story in high school literature classes. Describes a story that has humor, warmth, and a richness of theme that is appealing to both boys and girls. (NKA)

Provides a review of the use of history textbooks in United States schools. Focuses special attention on studies which sought to determine the treatment of specific groups or themes in secondary history textbooks by applying content analysis techniques. Concludes that only a limited number of studies quantified the data upon which the analysis was…

Explains that the concept of message discrimination was originally developed as a means of determining actual units of content that individuals extract from encounters with mass media and describes the relationship between message discrimination and the two related concepts of systematic information availability and knowledge. (DF)

A content analysis was performed on 57 selected children's books to identify the kinds of information presented about death. Among the factors analyzed were the place of death, who died, cause of death, feelings expressed by the dying person, the nature of the funeral, and questions asked by the child characters. (A selected bibliography of…

Information utilization was examined among 90 social service decision makers. Results indicated that propensity to use a particular type of information is relatively independent of the propensity to use a particular source from which the information is obtained. (Author/LMO)

Content analyzed a sample of 110 Grandparents' Day Cards. Results showed cards expressed love but not personal commitment. They avoided physical portrayal of grandparents and presented the elderly as nonpowerful and benign. The symbols used conveyed passivity. (NRB)

Analyzed the 15 best-selling single records for each year between 1955 and 1982, according to trend, content, decade, and musical era. Concluded that popular music is an expression of younger Americans who have become increasingly ironic in their view of human relationships. (PD)

Individual differences in the reading comprehension standards of 90 undergraduates were examined. Students were classified as having a dualistic or relativistic conception of knowledge by attitude measures. Data suggest that epistemological beliefs may dictate choice of comprehension criteria and that these epistemological standards may control…

Describes the Luiten, Ames, Bradley Readability Variation Method for estimating the variation within a text. Concludes that it is practical and relatively accurate. (HOD)

Discusses the historical evolution of four types of grammars in the English language as well as some causes of the problems people experience in using modern grammars of English. Contends that grammars are a "text type" that rests on quite specific text structural principles and on several textual levels. (SED)

Examines three articles written jointly by the same researchers and reporting the results of the same study in three different specialized journals. Points out the inadequacy of the current heuristic for analyzing audiences, and provides the basis for creating a different audience analysis heuristic based on rhetorical analysis of discourse. (HTH)

Shows how Caldecott and Newbery Medal books have reflected the changing norms of society during the past two decades. Specifically in the increased number of books with women as main characters, positive images of females, and situations similar to those encountered in everyday life. (EL)

Reports that coders were able to judge adequately the difference between immediate reward and delayed reward in news stories but not the difference between subcategories. (FL)