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…

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…

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…

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)

Finds that a graphical browser (a graphical representation of the structure of a hypertext document) had no effect on recall, comprehension, or recall of text structure but that it did increase the amount of text read by users and reduced the number of nodes repeated during reading. (SR)

Considers the rhetorical conventions that nonnative speakers of English often carry with them when they learn English. Stresses the need to respect students' diversity. (MG)

Compares recall and transfer performance of subjects receiving an extended instructional analogy or elaboration in a science text. Finds no differences between groups on explanative or nonexplanative recall. Finds differing amounts of far and immediate transfer for both groups in some instances. Suggests implications for the design of transfer…

Describes the PMOSE/IKIRSCH document readability formula, which provides a measure of document complexity (looking at structure and density) of a wide array of different document types (including lists, schedules, tables, graphs, charts, indexes, time lines, maps, calendars, and forms). Discusses implications of the formula in terms of document…

Examines comprehension of causal text sequences (in simulation) using construction-integration analysis. States that 16 preliminary simulations, applied to 2 text frames each, influenced decisions concerning 4 simulation choice points. Reveals good qualitative fit between the construction-integration activation of the probe questions and their…

Suggests the electronic classroom provides a space for applying feminist ideas to a theorization of hypertext. Explores the potential for hypertext to interrogate dominant ideologies and to produce alternative knowledge. Uses feminist activist art as a model, and takes advantage of the way hypertext enables combination the best of both modern and…

A study investigated whether informational graphics help attract the reader to a newspaper story, prolong reader interaction, and increase reader knowledge. Five versions of a small informational graphic and a related 10-inch non-lead story published on the bottom of a newspaper page were tested on 300 participants (a non-probability sample of…

A study investigated the effects of text processing orientations and reader-generated versus text-based comprehension aids on readers' comprehension of expository text. The processing orientations included memory-oriented processing, organization-oriented processing, understanding-oriented processing, and a read and study control. Subjects, 136…

A study investigated college students' reactions to a news story written in the traditional "inverted pyramid" format and the same story rearranged into a "mapped" format (where similar information is gathered under heads and subheads). Seventy students were given the story in either the "mapped" or the traditional…

As material objects, texts are as much the product of visual semiotic codes as of linguistic ones. And throughout history, verbal texts have been combined with nonverbal, visual modes of presenting information, taking a stance toward information and readers, and organizing parts into wholes. The major challenge to creating multimodal texts in the…