Uses of the cloze procedure for both diagnosis and for practice exercises for improving reading comprehension in a junior college reading program are described. Every tenth concept word--nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs--was omitted from expository prose selections of about 350 words each, and the reader was asked to write the missing word in the blank provided. Following completion of the writing, the teacher and students reviewed the responses orally. An additional procedure was added in which the students looked over the cloze exercise before doing it and noted unfamiliar words. Use of the cloze procedure was found to be particularly effective for (1) demonstrating the process of comprehension--how words combine with words into wider units of meaning, (2) demonstrating the part grammatical knowledge plays in comprehension, (3) pointing out to students their own deficiencies in the comprehension process, and (4) promoting discussion about particular reading selections and about the process of reasoning which is reading comprehension. References are included. (CM)