Metadiscourse is the author's intrusion into the discourse, either explicitly or nonexplicitly, to direct rather than inform the readers. Nine social studies texts written for students in grades 5-12 and nine for adults no longer in school were evaluated to determine if they contain informational and attitudinal subtypes of metadiscourse. (RM)

Metadiscourse, or an author's presence in a text, and its benefits for improving textbooks and children's learning and attitudes are explored in this paper. Through a historical review, the paper reveals that using the interpersonal voice and the author's commentary are legitimate rhetorical devices. Interviews with prominent contemporary…

Speech communication theorists have defined certain rhetorical characteristics that may improve the use and production of written texts. In order to determine whether social studies textbooks have rhetorical characteristics--containing both content information and the author's attitudes toward it--and whether these characteristics have the desired…

"The Later Middle Ages: Civilization Reborn" in Ginn's "Our World," a chapter from a sixth grade social studies textbook, was assessed by the author, who used specific evaluation criteria. Although four strengths were indicated, the author dealt primarily with weaknesses of the text and made many suggestions for improvement.…

An organizational framework consisting of the following four components is useful in exploring questions about improving textbooks: learner characteristics, learning activities, the critical task (for measuring student performance), and the nature of the materials. In considering learning characteristics and the materials, it is important to…

The purpose of this paper is to make classroom teachers on all educational levels aware of the limitations of readability formulas and the factors affecting readability that are not accounted for by the readability formulas. delineated in discussions of readability formula assumptions, problems, and limitations. Some of the specific factors that…

The attitudes of grade 6 middle school students and teachers toward their social studies textbook, "American Neighbors," (Macmillan, 1980) were measured through conversations, interviews, classroom observations, questionnaires, attitude measures, student letters to textbook authors, and a metaphor task. The case study, which took place…