Thematic Processes in the Comprehension of Technical Prose

Abstract

This chapter is concerned with thematic processes in the comprehension of technical prose. Technical prose is a subtype of expository prose that is concerned with presenting information of a technical nature. The chapter summarizes a set of results on the properties of technical prose, with a focus on the thematic processes by which a reader abstracts the gist, or important content, from technical prose and focuses on the process of abstracting the thematic content. Theoretically, the main item is simply the most important referent in the passage, whereas the main idea is the most important proposition. Passages differ in the relationship of their macrostructure to the microstructure. This issue is best illustrated by referring to the rules that van Dijk proposed for the construction of macrostructure. The chapter concludes that when the thematic content is reasonably clear, the reader considers the markers as redundant, or simply ignores them.

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