IDENTIFICATION OF THE STRUCTURE OF PROSE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR THE STUDY OF READING AND MEMORYa

Abstract. A presentation is given of Meyer's (1974) system for analyzing the organization of information in textual materials. This system is based on Fillmore's (1968) case grammar and Grimes ' (1974) semantic grammar of propositions. In addition, the need for such a technique in educational research and practice is pointed out, as well as, comparing Meyer's system to that of three different approaches to prose analysis. Also, the use of the structure of prose in two studies on reading and memory is described. Implications of this structural variable are discussed for other investigations into reading. This article deals with the structure of information in prose, and it is divided into four sections. The first section points out the need in educational research and practice for a procedure to analyze the structure of information in textual material. The second section presents a general comparison of four approaches for analyzing the structure of prose. The third section presents the author's procedure for the analysis of the structure of a passage. The final section presents a summary of the findings and implications of two studies investigating the relationship between wha