A group of teachers and researchers organized the Written Literacy Forum (WLF) to investigate how research on writing instruction could be made more practical for educators. WLF examined common research assumptions and their effects on formal research presentations, highlighting the surprising lack of effort by researchers to talk with teachers about educational theory. In its search for new research audiences and textual formats, the WLF also investigated the effects of altering such givens as author, audience, format, and purpose on the content and texture of theoretical work. WLF developed a conversational approach to educational research that emphasized both the role of narrative in theories of practice and the social functions of writing about research. (Appendixes include a discussion of the theoretical framework of the forms and functions of writing in the elementary classroom, a sample letter to parents with information on how to involve their children in writing at home, and rules of simulation games and samples of roles to be played by the researcher and principal.) (JD)