Russell VanBrocklen combined the brain research in Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz with the three default writing strategies in Strategies for Struggling Writers by James Collins while in graduate school. As a result, his initial research program was funded by the New York State Senate and is owned by the SUNY Research Foundation. He found that motivated high school students with dyslexia increased their writing skills 7-8 grade levels in one academic year. His approach is called The Writing Method.

Russell presented at The Everyone Reading Conference in Manhattan in 2006 and from 2014-2019. He also presented in November of 2018 at a conference run by The Learning Disability Association of NJ.