We have found writing frames helpful to students of all ages and all abilities (and, indeed, their wide applicability is one of their most positive features). They have been used with students from ages 5 to 16. However, teachers have found the frames particularly useful with students of average writing ability, with those who find writing difficult, and with students who have special needs in literacy. Teachers have commented on the improved quality (and quantity) of writing that has resulted from using the frames with these students.

It would, of course, be unnecessary to use a frame with writers already confident and fluent in a particular genre, but they can be used to introduce such writers to new genres. Teachers have noted an initial dip in the quality of the writing when comparing the framed new-genre writing with the fluent recount writing of an able child. What they have discovered later, however, is that, after only one or two uses of a frame, fluent language users add the genre and its language features into their repertoires and, without using a frame, produce fluent writing of high quality in the genre.

The aim with all students is for them to reach this stage of assimilating the generic structures and language features into their writing repertoires. Use of writing frames should be focused on particular children or small groups of students, as and when they need them. They are not intended as class worksheets, for within any class there will always be students who do not need them.