The definitive publication on RST is an article in the journal Text volume 8, number 3. That publication was based on a much more thorough report. Editorial space limitations led to deletion of large amounts of that report. It is now common to encounter confusion about RST that was resolved in the deleted portions of that report. So, the report described below can be used as a completely adequate substitute for the Text 8(3) article.

The report is identified as follows:

Title: Rhetorical Structure Theory: A Theory of Text Organization
Authors: William C. Mann and Sandra A. Thompson
Reporting Organization: University of Southern California, Information Sciences Institute (ISI)
Date: June 1987
Report number: ISI/RS-87-190
NTIS Identifying Number: ADA 183038

• The entire report can be downloaded as a pdf file.