Writing

Writing is not simple and is one of the most cognitively challenging and demanding skills for many pupils. An important part of teaching writing is ensuring pupils understand that writing involves multiple steps to create high-quality work. A good writer must have something to say, a plan to put ideas into written form and be able to reflect and self-edit to produce a written piece that communicates with its desired audience. Writing is demanding because it requires pupils to combine three processes; transcription, composition, and executive function. The complexity of writing means that the writing process could place a heavy burden on working memory resulting in overload if any process involved (Transcription + Composition + Executive Function) becomes too demanding.

The written language started as a logographic system, where pictures were used to convey meaning. This evolved through time into a syllabic system of writing and finally to an alphabetic system of writing. As a result, the writing system became very abstract, letters mapped to sounds and the interpretation of these representations of sounds became more complex, for example, ‘toe’, ‘grow’, ‘though’ and ‘go’. Sometimes the sound of a letter is modified by the adjacent letters, for example, ‘bit’ becomes ‘bite’. The complexity of the language impacts how reading and spelling is taught and demonstrates how challenging the writing process can be for pupils with difficulties.

Even after progress is made in reading, many pupils in the Foundation years will continue to present with significant difficulties in writing a ‘simple sentence’, and this same difficulty is apparent in spelling.  Many pupils rely on their sound (phoneme) grapheme (letter) knowledge to attempt to put their ideas down on paper. Unfortunately, the multiple mappings cause a significant degree of frustration and some pupils ‘give up’.  They find it difficult to understand why ‘a’ says /a/ in - cat, mat, sat, but ‘a’ doesn’t say /a/ in - salt, malt. halt.  Spelling is an integral part of the development of independent writing so the pupil, (just as in reading) needs some ‘anchor words’, to link learning to.

When pupils first learn to write, their effort goes into word level (transcription process), that is, spelling, grammar, punctuation and handwriting. If they write sentences, they are likely to be short and simpler than the pupils’ speech and show spelling and punctuation errors. As pupils become better at writing, transcription skills play a smaller role, and the composition process plays a more prominent role in the quantity and quality of the writing output. Composition is how something is put together and arranged; in this context, a piece of written work. Executive Function has been described as the brain's 'air traffic control', carrying out multiple tasks such as planning, organising, managing time, and controlling emotions, thoughts and behaviours whilst storing and retrieving key information and filtering distractions. Memory also impacts writing as the pupil must hold information long enough in short-term memory to act on it and then manipulate it in his / her working memory to compose a written piece. 

Pupils with literacy difficulties may also have co-occurring difficulties, such as Dysgraphia/Dyspraxia/Developmental Coordination Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or Autism. For many pupils with literacy difficulties the challenges of transcription continue to hamper the writing process. Word level skills such as spelling, grammar and handwriting are not automatic and pupils struggle to write a simple sentence, therefore they need support when composing. 

Research shows that children who learn cursive writing benefit in spelling, memory, text construction and thought formation. The acquisition of cursive script has been shown to improve writing speed, letter formation, spacing of letters and the retention of spelling. A cursive style with 'approach' and 'joining' strokes is helpful, as most letters start on a line. The improved writing fluency and speed associated with cursive writing free up working memory capacity, enabling the pupil to focus on composing what he / she wants to write.

Teachers can help pupils develop effective writing instruction by breaking down complex writing tasks into manageable chunks. Teach pupils how to plan and help pupils become fluent in many of the writing processes (transcription + composition + executive function). Use assistive technology, as required to improve written outcomes, for example, voice recognition software or mind mapping software.