This document discusses recursive descent parsing, which is a top-down parsing method that uses a set of recursive procedures to analyze the syntax of a program. Each nonterminal in a grammar is associated with a procedure. It attempts to construct a parse tree starting from the root node and creating child nodes in a preorder traversal. Recursive descent parsing can involve backtracking if the initial parsing path fails. An example grammar and parsing procedures using backtracking are provided to illustrate the technique.