Grammar for writing

last updated 1 April 2004

Bibliographical information

This paper was prepared for a workshop at the University of Exeter on 7th May 2004. This seminar, whose theme is "New Perspectives", is the second in the series of three seminars (funded by ESRC) called "Reconceptualising Writing 5-16:
cross-phase and cross-disciplinary perspectives".

I distinguish and discuss three kinds of growth in grammar:

Quantitative growth in performance. Here I present new data from the recent QCA-funded grammatical analyses of graded scripts across the age range.
Qualitative growth in performance, reporting data from Katharine Perera's 1986 study of grammatical differences between the speech and writing of the same children.
Growth in competence, where I argue that schools should teach children grammatical constructions which they don't yet know. I present research evidence that this kind of teaching works.