Building Tolerance for Writing Longer Stories and Better Essays

As an English teacher, I’ve witnessed a variety of writing challenges. I’ve seen students who have difficulties brainstorming ideas, students distracted when asked to write continuously for a timed prompt, or lately, students who rush through the task, writing only a few sentences before placing their pencils down and saying, “I’m done!” 

The latter challenge appears often and is the most common writing issue I see students struggle with on a daily basis. It’s revealed through phrases such as “I don’t have anything else to write,” “I followed the directions and it said a few sentences,” and “I don’t know.” These statements float around my head constantly and send my body into shock when one of them pops up unannounced. 

You’d think I’d be desensitized to those words by now, right? But in actuality, I am aware that these phrases appear when students don’t have the writing skills to elaborate their ideas further. Elaboration isn’t brainstorming. Brainstorming is great. A parent or teacher can help a child come up with multiple ideas to write about. They can create a chart or bullet points and use stream of consciousness to have children access their ideas. 

But elaboration is very different. Elaboration is the skill with which students add on to their ideas. Elaboration enters after students have narrowed their topic down and are adding description, providing context, or even adding evidence which supports their ideas. 

Some students may even know they need to write more at this stage, but they’re stuck. They haven’t figured out how to migrate their writing from the basic ideas to the significance. A description of a favorite object is only great when the student begins writing the “why.” The “why” can sometimes be known as the significance of something, and the significance is one of the most important tasks a writer faces. Because if a student only describes their favorite toy, and then stops writing, the reader has a limited understanding of why that toy is important to the writer, or what’s the story behind the toy. Most often, the story is more important than the description because the story draws the reader in, captivating their sensibilities with the themes of childhood, love, loss and experience. 

When students feel stuck at this point or, gasp, place their pencil down, claiming they’ve finished the task, I often pull out my arsenal of tools. First, we can try to talk it out. I ask the student leading questions to get them thinking about the “why.” Next, I may be more deliberate and ask them the question “why does it matter?” The mattering section must be obvious and deliberate, otherwise the writing loses its purpose. Writing without purpose is like peanut butter without jelly. 

Students need to build on this idea of elaboration which begins early when writing short descriptions or narrative, but then increases in complexity when asked to write analysis or elaborate on the author’s quotation. When students struggle with elaboration at this stage, I usually offer sentence frames, “this (Replace with topic or subject) shows/highlights/reveals_____” Finally, I model the elaboration and use the sentence frames to show how I can continue writing about the subject or quotation. 

Once students understand how to add to their writing, they stop feeling frustrated about the process. With consistent practice, the elaboration becomes instinct. The child stops putting the pencil down because they realize they have more to say than they originally thought. That shift, from "I'm done" to "wait, I want to add something," changes everything. It shows up in test responses that finally develop an argument. It shows up in essays that move past summary into analysis. It shows up in a child who approaches writing with confidence instead of dread.

The pencil stays on the page. And the story finally gets told.