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One of the major problems in artificial intelligence (AI) text generation is text organization; a poorly organized text can be unreadable or even misleading. A comparison of two AI approaches to text organization--McKeown's TEXT system and Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST)--shows that, although they share many assumptions about the nature of text, they are also in strong contrast. TEXT identifies text organization with whole-text nonrecursive structures, while RST uses small recursive ones. RST has an elaborate apparatus of relations between parts of texts, and of the "nuclearity" of particular parts; TEXT has no correlates for these. RST works with a wide range of relation types, TEXT with just one. TEXT is an implemented system, whereas RST is developmental. More important, TEXT develops text organizations so that they resemble patterns extracted from previous text, while RST strives for an organization which is justifiable as meeting the goals of the text being generated. This contrast raises many of the key issues in current research on the nature of text organization and how it can be created by programs. A 13-item reference list is appended. (Author/RP)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert