A study was conducted to investigate the compensatory effects of graphic organizers on text organization. Subjects were 114 tenth grade students who read two versions of an expository passage containing identical information but differing in top level structure. The version organized to show opposing views (comparison/contrast) was considered superior in facilitating recall to the version that simply related ideas to a main topic (description). However, on an immediate free recall task, multiple regression analyses revealed that regardless of students' reading ability level, performance was positively affected only for those in the descriptive text condition who had also been exposed to a graphic organizer prior to reading. The same effect was observed one week later on delayed free and delayed cued recall measures. Results from this study support R. E. Mayer's assimilation encoding theory stating that organizers may help readers "hold" incoming information from text that is less than optimal in its organization until that information can be pieced together. (Author/JL)