The definitive publication on RST is an article in the journal Text volume 8, number 3. This document is somewhat difficult to access, and it is not available electronically.

Fortunately, there are several ways to bypass this problem, gaining access to a much better source. 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, or in the form of page by page scans, zipped into a single file.

• The report can be purchased from the U.S. government. It is available from the National Technical Information Service (NTIS). They can be telephoned at (703) 605-6000, or toll free in the USA and certain other places at 1-800-553-6847. They can be contacted by email at info@ntis.gov or on the net at http://www.ntis.gov. Their identification number for this report is ADA 183038. In the USA, the downloadable file costs about $15; a paper copy is $48.