Research on literacy has become universal and is essential for researchers of various disciplines, educators, and psychologists. For this article, we examined the most important methodological challenges that arise when conducting literacy research across languages, some of which have long been acknowledged in the relevant literature.…

Science has greatly enhanced what we know about reading and writing. Drawing on this knowledge, researchers have proffered recommendations for how to teach these two literacy skills. Although such recommendations are aimed at closing the gap between research and practice, they often fail to take into account the reciprocal relation that exists…

Young children's writing development (i.e., writing occurring in preschool and kindergarten prior to the skilled, fluent writing associated with formal schooling) is an important predictor of later literacy achievement. Current policy movements, such as the Common Core State Standards, invoke increased composing demands, yet research has often…

Despite the importance of analytic text-based writing, relatively little is known about how to teach to this important skill. A persistent barrier to conducting research that would provide insight on best practices for teaching this form of writing is a lack of outcome measures that assess students' analytic text-based writing development and that…

Identifies causal relationships between the development of phonological abilities and progress in knowledge about writing in 90 middle-class Portuguese preschool children. Discusses how two experimental intervention programs proved equivalent in terms of the conceptual evolution they triggered, to the extent that the children in both experimental…

Responds to Deborah Wells Rowe's critique of Sarah J. McCarthey's article in the same issue. (HB)

Takes a critical look at the issue of scaffolding in children's writing, beginning with a consideration of the ways in which children's productions of text have been supported in previous research on writing development. Suggests that while scaffolding can assist children it may also, at times, hinder children in demonstrating their full range of…

Responds to Sarah J. McCarthey's article in the same issue. Considers particularly the limitations of McCarthey's research design. (HB)

Examines whether writing in combination with reading prompts more critical thinking than either activity alone, or either activity combined with questions or with a knowledge activation activity. Finds students who both wrote and read made more revisions (prompted by more critical thinking) than students in other treatment groups. (RS)

Extends a conversation begun in response to issues the authors identified in their own work as writers of qualitative research and in the works of others. Discusses theory, methodology, representation and legitimation, and writing and write-up of qualitative research. (RS)

Discusses the rationale and uses for personal or personalized writing in composition, literature, and content-area classes, and in curriculum conceptualization, research, and assessment in writing. Discusses relevant research studies and pedagogical criticisms of these kinds of writing assignments. Suggests that an excessive emphasis on personal…

Responds to Sarah J. McCarthey's article in the same issue. Considers two issues: the social context of conducting language research, and the treatment of language in research on classroom reading and writing. Requests a discussion of the social context of conducting research. (HB)

Offers a naturalistic picture of literacy in colonial North America by exploring family literacy in an early eighteenth-century urban New England setting. Uses the diaries and other writings of Cotton Mather (1663-1728) as sources on literacy within his family. Notes the importance of writing within the family. (SR)

Concludes that teaching a set of words to students before they write an essay in which the words might be used can improve the quality of their essays. (FL)

Examines how fourth and fifth grade students write summaries of both expository and narrative prose and lists eight qualities possessed by successful summarizers. (HOD)