From Goldman and Bisanz (in press). Toward a Functional Analysis of Scientific Genres: Implications for Understanding and Learning Processes. In J. Otero, J. A. León, & A. C. Graesser (Eds.), The psychology of science text comprehension. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Handout 1/16/02 Psych 303

Table 3. JRV of Nature article (appeared in Tennessean, January 6, 2000)

Sentences in JRV	Sections in News Storya	Rhetorical Moveb
From Memory, Chimp gets numbers Right	Headline
A chimpanzee has shown it can remember the correct sequence of five random numbers — an experiment that adds to the growing evidence that animals have some basic numerical ability. A female chimp tested with the numbers between zero and nine performed about as well as an average preschool child would, researchers at Kyoto University in Japan have found.	Main Event	Move 1 and 2: Hooking the reader and highlighting the major research outcome
The Chimp, named Ai, had already demonstrated that she could put five numbers in ascending order when they were scattered across a computer screen.	Background	Move 3: Reviewing related reseach.
But Kyoto researchers Nobuyuki Kawai and Tetsuro Matsuzawa reported in today’s issue of the journal Nature that they took the experiment a step further.	Details of main event	Move 4: Purpose of the new research
When the chimp touched the first number, the four others were covered up behind small white squares on the screen. She then had to touch the squares in the proper order. Kawai and Matsuzawa said the chimp had to memorize all the numbers to make the right choice.	Details of main event	Move 7: Describing the experimental procedure.
The chimp succeeded better than 90% of the time in identifying four numbers in the proper order, and was successful about 65% of the time with five items, far better than chance in each case. Matsuzawa noted that in one testing session, Ai was distracted by a fight among chimps outside the lab, but returned to the screen and completed the trial correctly.	Details of main event	Move 5: Identification of positive results.
The study builds on research by Herbert Terrace and Elizabeth Brannon at Columbia University in New York. Brannon said, however, the Japanese research showed stronger evidence of mathematical skill.	Background	Move 8: Explaining the research outcome.
“What is interesting about this work is that they actually trained the chimpanzee to see the relationship between the symbol and the underlying number.”	Consequence	Move 9: Stating the implication of the research.

a These are the categories identified by Van Dijk (1986). He segmented the news report into two major sections, the Summary and the News story. The Summary consists of the Headline and the Lead; the News story consists of several categories, including main event, details of main event, background, consequences, and comments.

bRhetorical moves are taken from Nwogu (1991).