Ten graduate English majors responded to 21 samples of literary discourse chosen to represent Kinneavy's (1971) categories; the selections contained a total of 513 cloze situations. This paper reports the results of an analysis of the clues which the readers reported using when they correctly completed the clozed items. A 14-category classification system was devised and shown to have a substantial degree of reliability (.81). Two classes of clues may be unique to literary discourse: (1) knowledge of author's style and (2) rhyme and meter. The other 12 classes may be common to all forms of discourse. Clues derived from language experience and familiar expressions, clues provided through repetition of words or use of synonyms, and association clues were used more frequently in prose than in poetry; clues provided by a question/answer pattern were found exclusively in prose; and clues provided by rhyme and meter were found exclusively in poetry. Implications for instruction and for future research are considered. (AA)