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Article analysis
As a student in the Early Childhood Education field, reading various academic
articles is an essential part of my graduate studies. In order to improve the gains of
reading, studying how to analyze an article is important. Therefore, this paper analyzes
Dr. Dennis and Dr. Horns (2011) article Strategies for Supporting Early Literacy
Development to demonstrate several main features in an academic article from the
Early Childhood Education field.
The article Strategies for Supporting Early Literacy Development, published in
the journal Young Exceptional Children, indicates many typical points in the field of
education. According to Swales and Feak (1990), the introduction of academic articles
usually follows the create-a-space model, containing three moves. However, in the
abstract of this paper, the authors, Dr. Dennis and Dr. Horn, use a practical example,
how teacher Annie uses book to support childrens literacy development in her
classroom, and a reference from a previous scholars idea to show the importance of the
research in early literacy development. The article only covers move 1 and move 3.
Moreover, Dr. Dennis and Dr. Horn use utterances The purpose of this article and
the information will address (a)(b)(c)(d) to introduce the aim and four main
portions of the article, which provides readers with a general understanding of this
article. Each section in the article starts with a subtitle to express the central point. The
subtitle offers readers a snapshot of the following content. As an instructional article,
the paper is not structured in the IMRD (Introduction, Methods, Research, and
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Discussion) method. The essay does have methods, research, and discussion, but
authors do not state them separately.
Firstly, the authors explain the importance of early literacy skill development in the
introduction. They use a table to provide detailed definitions and specific examples of
early literacy. The authors clearly demonstrate how professional writers use another
tool to give readers a better understanding of their thoughts. Secondly, Dr. Dennis and
Dr. Horn state methods about how to support early literacy development in three ways:
teaching early literacy skills during book reading, creating a literacy learning
atmosphere, getting parents involved in early literacy development(Dennis & Horn,
2011). In these three sections, Dr. Dennis and Dr. Horn refer to many other scholars
opinions to support their thoughts, which makes the main idea of the article more
familiar and understandable for the readers. For example, Dr. Dennis and Dr. Horn
summarize nine other scholars opinions to emphasize the importance of reading books
in early literacy development. Finally, Dr. Dennis and Dr. Horn conclude the article by
reemphasizing the opinions and strategies mentioned before. All of these parts are
related to the main concept of the paper.
In the article, Dr. Dennis and Dr. Horn incorporate many previous scholars
thoughts by using quotations, summary, paraphrase, sources mentioned in-text, and
endnotes. For example, authors summarize important aspects of early literacy from Dr.
Allor and Dr. McCatherns article, to explain why teachers in early childhood education
field need to master early literacy skills. There are almost twenty-eight different
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scholars thoughts being cited in the article. All the references are cited in APA style,
and a reference list is provided at the end of the paper. This style allows readers to
follow the authors ideas more efficiently and to easily locate information which
interests them.
Generally, Dr. Dennis and Dr. Horn appreciate the opinions of previous scholars
and develop the strategies using the previous findings alongside their own thoughts,
depending on personal experiences. For example, in order to emphasize the importance
of dialogic reading, Dr. Dennis and Dr. Horn cited Whitehurst and several other
scholars research results in the sentence Dialogue is encouraged through the use of
specific promptsas outlined by Whitehurst et al.(1994). Not only do the authors
emphasize other scholars observations of early literacy development in the article, they
also add a variety of their own ideas to make the paper more convincing and thoughtful.
In addition, few dates are incorporated in this article. Because the article is mainly
expressing the strategies about how to help children develop their literacy in early
childhood, the authors use practical stories or events to explain the opinions. The article
looks like a collection of strategies for supporting early literacy development.
All in all, in order to effectively read an academic paper in an educational
discipline, readers must effectively grasp the features. Depending on the analysis of the
article Strategies for Supporting Early Literacy Development, one could say that this
paper introduces the norm for academic articles in education field as having an
introduction and conclusion as separate parts, but discussing methods and discussion in
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the same part. In addition, the authors use plenty of practical examples, instead of dates,
figures, or graphs, to support their opinions. Lastly, various citations in APA style are
used in education academic articles.














Reference
Dennis, L. R., & Horn, E. (2011,September). Strategies for Supporting Early Literacy
Development. Young Exceptional Children, 14(3), 2940.
Swales, J. M. & Feak, C. B. (2012). Academic writing for graduate students: essential
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tasks and skills (3nd ed.). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.