A reader's ability to recognize an author's top-level structure in a passage is a useful strategy for organizing textual information for memory purposes. Even without specialized training, many adults and some fifth grade children have this ability. Other children in fifth and ninth grades, and in classes for the mildly mentally handicapped, have been trained to use this strategy with consequent improvement in memory performance. Research evidence shows that those who make strategic use of knowledge about text structure are likely to be better at comprehending reading material. A case can also be made that a reader's use of this strategy increases the likelihood that he or she will select and remember the main idea intended by a writer, and that where such selection is adequate and appropriate, a reader will better comprehend the message of a text. (FL)