Summary.A method for analysing structure and process in prose is suggested using algorithms based on graph theory and rules based in syntax. The method has been applied to analyse the essays written by 52 fourteen‐year‐old pupils on a newly learned topic in chemistry. Standard structural and process paradigms were specified based on the reproductive and constructive views of memory and the serial and parallel views of information processing. The pupils' actual behaviour was compared with these. The results showed no distinction between the reproductive/constructive paradigms of memory but showed that the pupils processed information in their essays in a manner much closer to a parallel processing strategy. Limitations of the experiment and the techniques used are discussed and improvements and extensions are sugges