This study was proposed to determine the occurrence, stability, and character of kinetic structure patterns within college physics lessons. Six lectures were randomly chosen from the schedules of each of six cooperating physics professors and a transcription of audio-tape recordings of each lecture was prepared. The flow of discourse was broken into discrete "thought-segments" known as discourse units. Within each discourse unit substantive terms or phrases known as verbal elements were determined. Three parameters of structure were identified in the lectures: (1) commonality, the degree to which contiguous statements of discourse contained common verbal elements; (2) progression, the degree to which the substantive content of a discourse statement diverges from that in the immediately preceding statement; and (3) theme activity, the degree to which discourse centers about central "theme" elements. A range of distinct modes of verbal organization was revealed among the cooperating professors. Statistically significant differences in structure were found between lectures on similar substantive material presented by different professors, whereas no significant differences were observed between lectures on different topics presented by the same professor. (Author/MLH)