Do your pupils have a problem with 'writing stamina'? The teachers and leaders I work with routinely describe the problem of pupils lacking writing stamina as a vital issue they want to address. 

But what is writing stamina anyway? I find it is typically a catch-all for a range of common issues for novice writers. It most typically describes issues with the physical demands of handwriting, the running out of ideas half-way through a task, and the failing to edit and adequately revise and improve their writing. Most commonly, it is a messy collection of all these issues all at once! 

Whether it is lots of notes on a science topic, an essay in history, or a substantial story writing task in English, many pupils are undertaking regular writing marathons. And they are struggling to muster the stamina to be up to the task. 

By the time it gets to pupils having to edit and revise their writing, it is the tired ‘final mile’ of their writing. Is it any surprise this goes awry? 

Fixing the final mile problem: moving editing and revising

A common observation for every teacher is that errors increase as pupils’ write more. Every additional five minutes of writing is likely to tax pupils’ previous mental energy and limited working memory capacity. 

Effectively, we ask pupils to do think hard about making improvements when they have fewest mental resources to do the job. 

A key solution to the final mile problem – and how to improve pupils’ editing and revising – take a paradigm shift in how we view writing. We need to change our thinking, and teaching, and have pupils edit and revising throughout their writing and not just at the end. 

One of the key strategies to improve editing I promote is ‘Editing stops’. It is a simple notion. Just like a marathon runner taking a vital short water break, editing stops can be offered for concise and precise editing efforts. It also allows pupils the opportunity of a refreshing review point to consider revising their writing. Additionally, teachers can use the opportunity to home in on a specific aspect of their writing to edit, thereby not managing their stamina for making meaningful improvements. 

Another approach that I see enacted well (particularly in primary school classrooms) are ‘Editing teams’. In the real world, authors and journalists have their peers to help them. Whether it is an editor, a copy editor, or helpful ‘readers’, most real authors writing individually, but call on teams to help. 

With clear role and goals – such as pupils working in trios, each with a task to review their writing for a specific purpose – editing teams can eliminate the stamina-sapping reality of undertaking a writing marathon alone.

The ultimate aim for independent writing is that pupils themselves edit and revise their writing in a continuous, purposeful fashion. For our novice pupils, often struggling, it requires lots of explicit supports – such as planning scaffolds, editing guides, editing teams, editing stops, and more. Crucially, we will need to shift our support from just spending five or ten minutes at the end of a writing task. 

Put simply, editing and revising needs to occur throughout any extended writing task, not just at the end.

Over time, with explicit instruction of editing and revising throughout the act of extended writing, pupils aren’t burdened with the daunting big editing and revision job in the final mile. Instead, they become confident, competent writers, who can run the final mile with the necessary stamina, and support, to succeed. 

Related reading:

I have written three blogs on writing stamina, editing and revising in depth here: 

  • See my blog on ‘The struggle with writing stamina’ - HERE.
  • See my blog on ‘The challenge of editing writing’ - HERE.
  • See my blog on 'Revising writing and why it matters' - HERE.

If you now have the thirst for a marathon reading task to better tackle the teaching of writing, my book ‘Closing the Writing Gap’ – available at Routledge HERE and Amazon HERE.