Following the author’s top-level organization: An important skill for reading comprehension

An important reading skill identified by a number of educators involves following the author’s organization of a text. For example, Davis (1944) identified eight reading comprehension skills through a factor analytic method. Two of these factors were following the structure of a passage and recognizing the author’s purpose. In addition, the work of Niles (1965) states that children must learn to follow the author’s pattern of thought. Spearritt (1972) identified four separate skills in reading comprehension and they also included following the structure of the passage and recognizing the author’s purpose.