Expository Text Structure Research Articles

Tech Connect: The Wonderful Web of Expository Texts

Presents descriptions of 14 websites that are divided into two categories: sites to help teachers learn more about expository text structure and informational sites students might enjoy.

Changes in readers’ and writers’ metacognitive knowledge: Some observations

Abstract This article reports observations made to explore students’ changing awareness of the characteristics of text, self as reader and writer, and monitoring strategies during the reading and writing of narrative and expository text. Information was obtained from sixth‐grade students at the beginning of the year, at year end and triangulated, where possible, with data from a larger study which focused on improving students’ knowledge and use of text structure as an aid to comprehension and writing. Within the limitations of such exploratory observations as this one, several trends can still be noted. These include: an increased awareness of text structure, particularly indications of elaborated schemata for narrative and expository text structure; knowledge about the importance of affect in personal decisions made on strategy use; the gradual awareness of oneself as an employer of a variety of sensemaking strategies during reading and writing; and a slight shift to greater use of a number of self‐moni...

The Effects of Expository and Narrative Prose on Student Achievement and Attitudes Toward Textbooks

The hypothesis that narrative text structure would be more interesting than expository text structure, and would therefore motivate more learning, was tested using an experimental design. Five classes of secondary school students read a history textbook chapter written in conventional expository style, and another five classes read a narrative version in which the same subject matter was embedded in a story involving fictional characters. All students also received instruction from their teachers. Contrary to prediction, the two groups did not differ significantly on the achievement posttest. Both groups also had similarly positive attitudes toward the text version they read, although in a face-to-face comparison the majority of the students preferred the narrative version. Recommendations for further tests of the hypothesis are offered.

Contexts for expository text structure use

Abstract Using both qualitative and quantitative measures the study examined (a) the contexts for use of knowledge about expository text structure and (b) the ways in which students used text structure knowledge. In this facet of a larger study, the classroom of 28 sixth grade students participated in explicit text structure instruction over a nine‐week time period. Retro‐spective interpretative probes in a structured interview followed written recall and composition tasks. Findings from the interviews suggest that following the instructional phase (but not prior to instruction) students used their knowledge of text structure in a variety of contexts during reading (for example, when teacher directed, if the topic was familiar, if the expository texts were interesting, etc.), during writing (in social studies and science, when writing reports, etc), during everyday life (when making a grocery list, when reading a recipe, when visiting a museum, in oral communication, etc.). The interview data also suggest...

Learning Disabled and Nondisabled College Students' Use of Structure in Recall of Stories and Text

This study compared LD and average college students' use of expository text structure and story grammar to recall social studies text passages. Students simultaneously read and listened to three passages with different structures: story grammar, comparison, and causation. Results were analyzed for structure use in immediate oral recall. No difference was found between the groups on the use of story grammar and comparison structure. However, the LD students scored significantly lower than their average peers on the causation structure. The results support research showing that LD students use story structure as well as nondisabled students and suggest that structure use is developmental, with use of comparison structures preceding use of causation.