This paper describes the composition of one particular kind of study guide called a pattern guide that can be used by content area teachers to aid their students in reading and understanding their textbooks. The purpose of the guide is stated as highlighting the reading and thinking skills to be used as well as the most important concepts to be learned. Six steps are described for the preparation of a pattern guide: (1) identify the important concepts in a chapter; (2) read carefully and note the portions of material that correspond to the previously determined concepts; (3) identify the organizational pattern used by the author, e.g. compare/contrast, time order, cause/effect, or simple listing; (4) note signal words in the four relationship categories that help to identify the patterns; (5) integrate the essential concepts, the author's writing pattern, and the reading/thinking process the student will use--for example, the causes of the Civil War might be the essential idea to be learned, cause/effect may be the writer's organizational pattern, and determining causal relationships would be the student's reading thinking process; and (6) decide how much help over the entire chapter is needed by the students. Suggestions for several pattern guide formats are presented and analyzed. (MKM)