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Reading is critical to students' success in and out of school. One potential means for improving students' reading is writing. In this meta-analysis of true and quasiexperiments, Graham and Herbert present evidence that writing about material read improves students' comprehension of it; that teaching students how to write improves their reading comprehension, reading fluency, and word reading; and that increasing how much students write enhances their reading comprehension. These findings provide empirical support for long-standing beliefs about the power of writing to facilitate reading.
Reading is one of the most critical skills that students must master to be successful educationally, occupationally, and socially. Students' educational success depends on their abilities to read and critically analyze information presented in textbooks and other classroom materials (Berman, 2009; Klein, 1999). Reading is essential to success in most white-collar and blue-collar jobs (Greene, 2000) , with forecasters predicting an increase in the proportion of newjobs requiring strong reading skills (Carnevale & Derochers, 2004; Kirsch, Braun, Yamamoto, & Sum, 2007). Reading is part of the basic fabric of twentyfirst-century life, as e-mailing, blogging, texting, Facebook, and other forms of written text are now common means for social contact and communication. Written text permeates everyday life, from messages prominently displayed on billboards and sides of buses to information provided on everyday essentials, such as cans of food and botdes of medicine.
Despite the importance of reading, many students are not skilled readers by the end of high school. The 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reported that only 38 percent of twelfth-grade students performed at or above the "proficient" level in reading (defined as solid academic performance) (NCES, 2010). In terms of younger students, only 33 percent of fourth graders and 32 percent of eighth graders performed at these levels (NCES, 2009). In contrast, 34, 43, and 36 percent of fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-grade students, respectively, scored at the "basic" level, denoting only partial mastery of the literacy skills needed at their grade levels. The rest of the tested students' scores were below this basic level.
Furthermore, the reading performance of students who do not speak English as their first language, students who have a disability, and students who are black, Hispanic, or Native American was significantly lower than...