‘He’s got great ideas, but…’
Meet Jamie. He’s lively in class discussions, full of ideas during shared writing, and often the first to contribute a memorable plot twist.
But when it comes to independent writing, something changes.
His teacher notices:
- Jamie writes significantly less than his peers during independent tasks.
- His handwriting is slow and inconsistent, and spelling errors often interrupt his flow.
- His writing lacks structure and he sometimes starts without a clear plan. He loses track of his ideas mid-sentence and often doesn’t finish longer tasks.
- He often re-reads his work only superficially, missing obvious errors or opportunities to improve
While inevitably limited in its ability to capture the full complexity of Jamie’s experience as a writer, a framework such as ‘The Simple View of Writing’ – which appears consistently across every EEF literacy guidance report – can offer a useful lens through which to view their experience.
The framework highlights that successful writing relies on the interplay of three interdependent components.
1. Transcription
This refers to the ability to spell and write fluently. Supporting automaticity in these skills will free up cognitive resources for other aspects of writing, such as planning and composition
2. Executive functionCognitive skills that enable children to adapt their thinking and actions to achieve a goal. This might be a self-chosen goal (e.g. To build a tower) or set by an adult (e.g. to respond to a question about a story).
This involves managing the writing process – planning, monitoring, and revising. These skills are developed over time and benefit from explicit teaching, scaffolding, and modelling.
3. Text generation, or composition
Text generation is the ability to form ideas and translate them into coherent written language. Pupils need to practise ‘thinking like a writer’ – using vocabulary, grammar and structure to suit different audiences and purposes. Teachers can support this by making the thought process visible through techniques such as ‘thinking aloud’ and narrating their decisions as they write.
Jamie is a pupil with strong oral language and clear compositional potential, but there is a mismatch between Jamie’s thinking and his written output.
- Transcription
His handwriting is slow and not automatic, and spelling decisions demand a lot of his attention. This overloads his working memory, leaving less capacity for organising or extending his ideas
- Executive FunctionCognitive skills that enable children to adapt their thinking and actions to achieve a goal. This might be a self-chosen goal (e.g. To build a tower) or set by an adult (e.g. to respond to a question about a story).
Jamie struggles with the self-regulatory processes that underpin effective writing:
- Planning before he writes.
- Monitoring his progress as he writes.
- Reviewing and revising meaningfully.
In Jamie’s case, even though his compositional ideas are strong, his limited transcription fluency and undeveloped executive functioning are preventing him from producing writing that reflects his true ability.
Looking back, Jamie may not have received:
- Enough focused handwriting and spelling instruction to build transcription fluency in Key Stage one.
- Explicit teaching in planning and self-monitoring strategies as he moved into longer writing tasks.
- Scaffolded opportunities to rehearse, plan, and reflect before and after writing.
How to support Jamie now
To help Jamie thrive as a writer now, teachers might:
- Provide handwriting and spelling fluency practice to reduce cognitive load.
- Use graphic organisers or sentence scaffolds to support planning.
- Teach self-monitoring and revision as explicit, guided processes.
- Celebrate his ideas and voice to maintain motivation while developing core skills.
Jamie is not unusual – many pupils like him appear capable in discussion but struggle on the page. ‘The Simple View of Writing’ gives us a framework to see the full picture, so we can intervene effectively and prevent these challenges from becoming barriers to long-term success.
Further reading
Berninger, V.W., Amtmann, D. (2003). Preventing written expression disabilities through early and continuing assessment and intervention for handwriting and/or spelling problems: Research into practice. In Handbook of Learning Disabilities, Swanson, H.L., Harris, K.R., and Graham, S. (Eds.) (pp. 345 – 363). New York: Guilford Press