Think about what you need to know: Consider your professional setting, experiences, interests, and needs. What is it that you don't fully understand -- but need to or would like to? Try to develop two or three questions that you can then use to focus your article. Note: Because this course addresses general literacy development and research-based best practices in instruction, please target your research question accordingly. A question regarding classroom-based instructional interventions would be well within the scope of this course. A question regarding standardized diagnostic testing would not. Please let me know if you need help developing an appropriate research question.

Here are some questions explored by previous LITC 525 authors:

• How effective is DIBELS in predicting students' oral reading fluency and comprehension?
• What roles do attitude and motivation play in helping struggling adolescents read more effectively?
• What are research-based strategies for improving the vocabulary understanding of students in a high school resource room?
• What is the effect of discussion on students' comprehension of what they read?
• How can the literacy practices in the home influence preschool children's literacy development?
• What does research say about effective stratgegies to improve students' phonemic awareness?
• What are research-based strengths and weaknesses of early intervention programs in reading?

  Find out what's been done before: Chances are good that someone has already explored the question that is right for you. As you refine your question, it might help to see what others have done. A quick way to get a feel for "fruitful" topics is to scan a few research resources. The following web sites would be good places to look for ideas. [Tip: These web sites will also be excellent resources once you have settled on your question!]

• References included in Allington's What Really Matters for Struggling Readers and in your professional study book
• What Works Clearinghouse US Department of Education, Institute for Education Sciences: Federal clearinghouse of scientific evidence of what works in education.
• ERIC search: I would suggest an "Advanced Search" using Keywords (e.g., "phonics instruction," "literacy engagement"), as well as 143 (research reports) as "Publication Type." You can also search ERIC Digests, collections of research organized by topic.
• EdResearch.Info: Clearinghouse for research on reading and writing. Categories include "Reading Education," "Writing Education," and "Publicly Reported Tests of Reading and Writing Achievement."
• Research on phonics instruction by Dr. Margaret Moustafa, author of Beyond Traditional Phonics (review of research on phonics instruction).
• International Reading Association: Reading Research Quarterly (online access to tables of contents and abstracts from RRQ articles). Scroll down in the text and click on "Browse the online abstracts" or "Search the available journals" to see the table of contents and abstracts. Article Archive. Access tables of contents for IRA journals The Reading Teacher and Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. Reading Online: IRA's online journal with articles on a wide range of literacy topics.
• Center for the Study of Early Reading Achievement (CIERA). Research and technical reports related to early literacy.
• Journal of Literacy Research of the National Reading Conference. You can search the article archive. The NRC has also published two white papers on effective literacy instruction for beginning readers and adolescents. Go to the NRC home page to download "Effective Beginning Reading Instruction" by Michael Pressley or "Effective Literacy Instruction for Adolescents" by Donna Alvermann.
• Seattle University Databases. Search the databases available through the Lemieux Library. One of the best for literacy-related research and best practice articles is "Academic Search Premier."

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Step 2: Refine your question

You need to match the scope of your question to the scope of this research project. With a limit of about 10 pages for this assignment, you need a very specific and well-chosen question. The more focused your question, the easier it will be to prepare a solid review of the research on the topic. The tendency is to imagine a burning question that -- although important to you -- is better suited to a master's thesis than to this review of research. For example, the following question is too big:

How do students comprehend text?

But here is a more manageable component of that question: How can students improve their comprehension through discussion of what they read?

If you're not sure whether your question is focused enough, check out "Research Questions: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly" by Dr. John Chattin-McNichols. His light-hearted (and very helpful) guiding questions will help you refine your topic for this review.
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Step 3: Gather research articles

I rarely discover the perfect set of research articles right away. Sometimes I continue to refine my question as I come across citations and possible articles. Here's how I do that: Once I find one research article that seems to fit my question perfectly, I look it up in ERIC or in the Lemieux Library databases and then use the descriptors and keywords listed for that article to find more articles like it. I also look in the reference list to see what other research those authors cite. Finding pertinent articles is a step-by-step process.

As you gather articles, remember that although you are writing an article based on research (and -- therefore -- will be looking primarily for articles that report research studies), you may also include application articles. An acceptable research article meets the criteria for scientifically-based reading research described in Allington (2006) on p. 24. Please review those criteria before you select a research article. An application article would be any article that supports the research base for your topic by providing specific applications for classroom practice. Application articles can be very useful in your introduction and discussion sections where you discuss the "real-world" aspects of your topic.

1st Important Note: Sources of Acceptable Research: In order to meet Allington's criteria, research must be accepted "by a peer-reviewed journal or approved by a panel of independent experts through a comparably rigorous, objective, and scientific review" (p. 25). Research published in Reading Research Quarterly, Teaching Exceptional Children, or the Journal of School Psychology meet the independent and peer reviewed criteria. Most of the "research" presented in support for commercial reading programs or assessments does not.

2nd Important Note: Web-based Research Articles: If you wish to use research published outside of a peer-reviewed journal from an established professional association, you must carefully determine the validity of the research for meeting the criteria above. Good examples would be research reports from reputable research organizations (e.g., CIERA - http://www.ciera.org). These research reports have been vetted w/ independent experts and can be considered to be "peer reviewed." Be very careful that any research studies accessed online meet Allington's criteria. If in doubt, let me know, and I'll help you.

Examples of application vs. research articles:
Here is an application article on graphic organizers: EJ601328. Dye, Gloria A.. Graphic Organizers to the Rescue! Helping Students Link--and Remember--Information. TEACHING Exceptional Children; v32 n3 p72-76 Jan-Feb 2000.
How do you know it's an application article? The abstract says: "This article describes using graphic organizers as a way of assisting students with disabilities..." The author is describing the use of graphic organizers in a classroom setting.

Here is a research article on graphic organizers: EJ525342. Griffin, Cynthia C.; And Others. Effects of Graphic Organizer Instruction on Fifth-Grade Students. Journal of Educational Research; v89 n2 p98-107 Nov-Dec 1995.
How do you know it's a research article? The abstract says: "This study examined whether graphic organizer instruction would facilitate comprehension ..." Also, Publication Type "143" denotes a report of research. The authors are reporting the results of their research on graphic organizers.
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Step 4: Read, read read
Read a broad selection of research studies and application articles pertaining to your topic (5 - 10 articles). This reading phase should help you sharpen your question and give you a good idea of the depth and kind of information available. After reading, choose the best, most relevant articles you have found. In this group, you must include at least three articles that are reports of research studies. The others may be reviews of research or may be application articles pertaining to the topic. Re-read these carefully and know them thoroughly.
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Step 5: Planning the article
I like to have the end clearly in mind when I start to write. I'm assuming that you have read the assignment carefully and that you have reviewed the Article Checklist and the rubric in the syllabus. You'd be surprised how much time and energy you can save when you do! In addition, the following suggestions might help:

Capturing Information
It's one thing to find all these great resources in articles -- and another to remember them when you're ready to write. That's why notecards or some other tool for "capturing ideas" can be helpful. You will devise a system that works for you. But here are my tips for the process:

• Keep your notes and the bibliographic information in the same place (on the same card or sheet of note-taking paper). You'll avoid the frustration of searching frantically for the author or title of the article when you want to use that perfect quote. A chart similar to this one may be helpful: Download a copy of the notetaking chart
  

  Reference	Purpose/goals of study	Subjects	Method (What did the researchers do?)	Findings/Conclusions (What did they find and what do they say it means?)

• If you think you want to use a quote, write it on the card (or put a Post-it Note on the article right where the quote appears). That way, you'll have the exact wording if you quote directly or you can paraphrase in your own words.
• All you really need to capture are the basic facts of the research (who did what to whom and what was found) and what points you want to make with it in your article. Having that already on the notecard will make the writing much easier. Then, if you find that you need more information, you can always go back to the original article.

Organizing Information
If you carefully organize your ideas before you write, most of the hard work will be done up front. Then, it's much easier to make sense when you write. I highly recommend that you don't skip this step. You can use notecards, a concept map, or a more traditional outline. I like notecards (or large Post-it Notes) for the simple fact that I can physically move them around to see how studies might fit together.

One of the most common weaknesses in the reviews of research is fuzzy or non-existent organization of ideas -- or lack of "flow" from one idea to the next. If you're not really sure how your studies fit together, your reader probably won't be, either. As a writer, your job is to take your reader by the metaphorical hand and lead her through a logical chain of ideas so that she clearly understands what you're saying and what evidence you're using to support it. That's why up-front organization is so critical.

You'll know that your ideas are well organized if, when reading through your article, you can pull out just the key ideas from each paragraph, write them down in sequence, and they would still make sense. When we review your drafts, that's what your instructors will do. Organizing your information at the front end of your writing process will make this so much easier for you!

Click here
Cambridge Rindge & Latin School Research Guide: Making an Outline
Read the directions, then scroll to the bottom of the page to"Create Your Outline Now Online"

More help online: Research tips
Basic Steps in the Research Process: Cambridge Rindge and Latin School
Online Writing Lab at Purdue University has excellent resources to help you, including Step-by-Step Procedure for research papers and a section on Research and Documenting Sources. Even though these resources are focused on a more traditional review of research paper, you will find many helpful suggestions as you write your article.

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Part 2: Writing the article

Step 6: Writing the Introduction
NOTE: Although the Introduction is the first section of your finished article, it is not necessarily written first. Writers all work in their own ways. You might start with the Review of Research section so that you have a clear idea of what you want to convey in your article before you tackle the Introduction. Or you might want to work on the "big picture" first, and so draft the Introduction before going on to the other sections of the article. How you work is up to you! But when you're ready to start on the Introduction, these suggestions might help:

Check out the sample Introduction here

• For an article of this length, develop an Introduction of about 1 to 2 pages.
• Explain your topic in "real world" terms -- why is it important in your professional setting?
• An effective structure: Begin with a general overview statement that introduces the topic, follow up with supporting detail sentences, and conclude by weaving in your research question. See an example of an Introduction here.
• As you write, keep your organization in mind. Once you have drafted the introduction, evaluate it: Go through each paragraph and make a list of the key ideas. Write them down in sequence. Do they make sense and lead the reader where you want her to go?
• Another effective way to check the "flow" of your article: Read it out loud to yourself or to a willing listener.
• Use the Article Checklist to refine your Introduction.

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Step 7: Writing the Review of Research
Use a descriptive subheading to title this section so that the reader clearly knows that you will now include research that sheds light on your topic. In this section, you will now discuss what is already known about your question or topic based on evidence from past research and best practice. Here is where you will weave together the key research and application articles that provide information on your topic.

Critical Component #1: Review: Because you are writing a short article (10 pages as opposed to a much longer thesis, article, or dissertation), you can't possibly review all of the research that pertains to your topic. That's why it's so important that you select the best, most relevant examples of research. Your task is to explain each research study (See examples below of each part: purpose or goal of the study, subjects, method, findings) briefly and succinctly -- then discuss what key points from the research (and relevant application articles) inform your question or topic. You want to summarize this information in a paragraph or two, rather than recounting the study in detail. Here is an example:

"Baumann and his colleagues found that training in think-aloud improved children's ability to monitor their comprehension while reading (Baumann, Seifert-Kessel, & Jones, 1992). Third-grade children trained to think aloud as they used several comprehension strategies were better than a comparison group at detecting errors in passages, responding to a questionnaire about comprehension monitoring, and completing cloze items. One student trained in think-aloud explained, 'When I read I think, is this making sense? I might... ask questions about the story and reread or retell the story' (Baumann et al., p. 159). This and other student comments suggested a thoughtful, strategic approach to reading through think aloud."
Duke, N.K. & Pearson, P.D. (2002). "Effective practices for developing reading comprehension." In Farstrup, A.E. & Samuels, S.J. (Eds.). What research has to say about reading instruction, 3rd ed. Newark, DE: International Reading Association, p. 215.

The example above is concise (one paragraph), gives all of the critical details (who did what to whom, what they found, and what it means), and uses interesting examples to explain how think aloud works as a key component of comprehension monitoring.

Critical Component #2: "Weave": You need to weave your explanation of the selected research articles together so that this section flows logically and articulately. As with the Introduction, you assume the writer's responsibility of guiding your reader through a thinking process so that he understands what the research contributes to an answer to your question, as well as how the research studies, taken together, provide clear and compelling evidence for that answer. Unless you are plagiarizing from an already-existing review of the same research (and we know you're not!), you need to show your reader how the studies you have selected fit together.

NOTE: The greatest weakness in the review of research article often occurs right here -- The writer fails to hold up his or her end of the writer/reader compact: To help the reader understand how the ideas flow logically and convincingly from one to the next

So a deft hand at weaving words and ideas is critical. Weaving as you write will be much easier if you go back to your original organizing framework from Step 5. The following questions may help:

• How do these studies fit together? This is the first, most general question. You should tackle it first because It relates directly to the next question:
• How do I want to order the studies in the review? For example, you might want to write about one study first and then use the other studies to support its findings. Or you might have several studies that deal with different approaches to your question. Each of those situations would call for its own organizing framework. Figure out the order in which you want to discuss the studies.
• What transitions will help the reader follow my train of thought from one study to the next? For me, this is the most important question. Effective writers don't make their readers do all the work -- they provide transition sentences, words, phrases, and sometimes whole paragraphs that take the reader from one study's main points to the next. Examples of helpful transitions:
  • A sentence or two placed between studies to explain how one study relates to another:

  [following the review of a study on bubble gum chewing and its effects on reading comprehension] "When cognitive tasks, such as counting backwards from 57 to 36, are added to physical tasks described above, comprehension can be even more difficult. For example, Double and Bubble (2002) ...[then review the study on counting, chewing and standing on one foot and the effect on reading comprehension]

  • "Weaving" phrases: For example,... In addition,... Similarly,... In contrast,...
• Use the Article Checklist to refine your Review of Research

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Step 8: Writing the Discussion
In the Discussion section, you now explain the implications of the research your have reviewed. Your goal is to "translate" research findings into something that professionals can use as they confront the issue or question that you've raised. As you develop the Discussion, keep the following points in mind:

• In an article of this length, the Discussion section would be about 2-4 pages.
• The points you make in the Discussion must come from the research you have reviewed. In other words, if you included a study that showed that explicit instruction in comprehension strategies was effective for learning disabled students, you need to say something about how teachers can offer that instruction in the Discussion. In addition, it's possible that your research studies were only related to your question. For example, let's say you were looking at the effect of literature circle discussions on high school students' comprehension, yet all the research that you found was conducted on middle school students. In your Discussion, you would need to make reasonable generalizations -- explain how the results could apply to a different population.
• Say something in the Discussion related to each research study you cited -- or at least to each research topic. For example, you might have cited three studies on the same type of vocabulary instruction. In that case, you would need to include something on that type of instruction in your Discussion -- but not something different for all three studies (as long as they were the same).
• In the Discussion section, you may pull in information from sources other than the specific research studies you reviewed in the Review section. For example, if your research suggested that teachers need to explicitly teach comprehension strategies, you might give examples from other articles (or book chapters, credible web sites, etc.) that provide teaching suggestions. This is a good way to use those application articles that describe what teachers can do but that are not specifically reports of research.
• Use the Article Checklist to refine the Discussion.

Step 9: Writing the Conclusion
The Conclusion of your article provides a synthesizing statement to wrap up what you've presented. Remind the reader of the issue/question, review what was found, and summarize the implications for professional practice. A strong Conclusion is possible to achieve in one paragraph.

Step 10: References
Your final step is to prepare your list of references. Everything that you have cited in your article must show up on this list -- and don't include anything here that you haven't cited within the body of your article. Follow APA format. If you are unfamiliar with APA style, you can find some very helpful resources at the bottom of this page under "Great sites for help with APA style."

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More help online: Writing tips for research papers

Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr.: The best reference for basic writing conventions!

Writing a Research Paper by Sarah Hamid of the Online Writing Lab at Purdue Univesity. Good, general overview of a review of research.

University of Richmond Writing Center. Excellent, concrete guide to effective writing.

Michael Harvey's Nuts and Bolts of College Writing has a wonderful section on structuring a research paper and common sense suggestions for writing.

Writing Hints: Merle S. Bruno, Hampshire College. Dr. Bruno's thorough and helpful guidelines for students in the natural sciences apply to reviews of research in education, as well.

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: University of Wisconsin-Madison

AND -- Great sites for help with APA style:

Basic APA citation style: Online Writing Lab: Purdue University

APA Style: Michael Harvey’s The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing
Basic in-text citations Select "Basic APA citation style" from the menu at the top of the page.
In-text references Select "In-text references" from the menu at the top of the page.
Various forms of citation and reference details Select "APA citation and reference details" from the menu at the top of the page.
End-of-paper references Select "List of references" from the menu at the top of the page.

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Final Checklist
You can download a copy of the Article Checklist here (Word document)