To determine whether revisions incorporating features of a Time-Life style would improve students' recall of text, a writer and an editor revised two expository passages from a high school history textbook. They added action verbs, created a sense of drama, made explicit transitions, provided background information, and inserted "nuggets"--vivid anecdotes and human details. One hundred eleventh-graders read both original and revised versions of the passages. When students read the revised version of the Korea passage, they recalled 32% more idea units than when they read the original. When reading the revised Vietnam passage, they remembered 39% more idea units than when they read the original version. These findings indicate that the combination of changes did improve students' recall. (Author)