The Grammar for
Writing Pedagogy
A research-based approach to teaching writing
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Introducing the Research
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Different views of grammar
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Learning grammar rules;
Correcting grammar errors;
De-contextualised exercises;
A focus on error and accuracy.
OR
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Developing knowledge about language;
Using metalanguage to talk about language;
Making connections between grammar and writing;
A focus on meaning and effects
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Contextualised grammar teaching
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A rhetorical view of grammar – exploring how language works
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Investigating how language choices construct meanings in different
contexts
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The teaching focus is on writing, not on grammar per se
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The teaching focus is on effects and constructing meanings, not on
the feature or terminology itself
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The teaching goal is to open up a repertoire of infinite
possibilities, not to teach about ‘correct’ ways of writing
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Large-scale research project with
Y8 students, conducted in 2008-09
A randomised control trial
Lesson
observations
Writing
outcomes
16 Intervention classes were taught 3
schemes of work supporting contextualised
grammar knowledge
Pre and post tests compared to
16 comparison classes
Teacher
interviews
embedded in a
qualitative study
Student
interviews
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The Intervention
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Designed 3 schemes work (1 per term) focusing on a different written
genre: Narrative Fiction; Argument; Poetry
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Each unit had the same core set of learning objectives
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Grammar features which were relevant to the writing being taught were
embedded into the teaching units
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Intervention group had detailed teaching materials for each lesson
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Comparison group addressed same learning objectives, same
resources and produced same written outcomes, but had no lesson
plans
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Did it work?
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Statistically significant positive effect for intervention group
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Intervention group improved their writing scores by 20% over the
year compared with 11% in the comparison group.
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The grammar teaching had greatest impact on able writers
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Able writers in the comparison group barely improved over the
year
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[A later study shows the approach is effective for weaker writers]
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Teachers’ subject knowledge of grammar was an influencing
factor
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Metalinguistic knowledge
Effective teachers in our study:
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always linked the linguistic feature to a specific context-relevant
effect or purpose, thus making meaningful connections between
the grammar under focus and the writing;
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responded to students’ own writing sensitively, asking questions
which invited students to consider the writing choices they were
making, or by drawing out explicitly effective choices in the
writing;
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had sufficient metalinguistic knowledge to notice relevant
aspects of reading texts or students’ writing to draw to learners’
attention.
Understanding the Pedagogy
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The Exeter approach
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Not a course in grammar but a way of teaching writing
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Draws on many of the good practices already commonly used in the
teaching of writing: drafting, revising, editing; creative stimuli for writing;
peer collaboration; the scaffolding of writing tasks, including teacher
modelling of writing
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The attention to grammar is embedded within this and is intended to be
explicit and to help writers develop understanding and independence in
making choices in their writing
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It constantly makes links between reading and writing
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It is underpinned by a set of pedagogical principles to guide how the
grammar is used
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It is research-based
Teaching grammar for writing: key
principles
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Always link a grammar feature to its effect in the writing
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Use grammatical terms but explain them through
examples
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Encourage high-quality discussion about language and
effects
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Use authentic examples from authentic texts
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Use model patterns for students to imitate
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Support students to design their writing by making
deliberate language choices
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Encourage language play, experimentation and risk taking
Making connections
Always link a grammar feature to its effect in the writing
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The goal in embedding attention to grammar within a
writing curriculum is to support writing development, not to
learn grammar;
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Understanding ‘effects’ is part of beginning to understand
the writer’s craft and the possibilities open to a writer;
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Considering how grammatical structures create meaning
in specific contexts reinforces the importance of context
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Making meaningful connections between writing and
grammar avoids redundant learning, such as ‘complex
sentences are good sentences’
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Making connections: a primary
classroom example
Context: Writing fairy tales
Learning focus: How fairy tales use short, simple noun
phrases to describe characters, settings and objects
Connections between grammar and writing: Through
discussion and close reading/close listening to fairy tales,
the teacher draws out that many of them use short, premodified noun phrases, often drawing on a restricted stock
of vocabulary – a wicked stepmother; a beautiful princess;
a handsome prince; the enchanted forest; a golden apple
Making connections: a secondary
classroom example
Writers make choices about how much information to
reveal to the reader, and the ways in which they will reveal
it. In the opening of a story, for example, pronouns (I, you,
he, she, it, we, they) reveal little about characters, except
the number of characters or their gender. Writers can
therefore use pronouns to withhold information from the
reader, making them ask questions like ‘Who is this
person?’ This can engage the reader’s interest by making
them want to discover the answers.
Read the opening of The Bourne Imperative by Robert
Ludlum. How would the impact of this opening be altered if
the writer had used the characters’ names – Jason Bourne
and Rebeka – instead of the pronouns he and she?
She came out of the mist, and he was running, just as he had been
for hours, days. It felt like he had been alone for weeks, his heart
continually thundering inside his chest, his mind befogged with
bitter betrayal. Sleep was unthinkable, rest a thing of the past.
Nothing was clear now except that she had come out of the mist
after he had been certain – for the thirteenth, or was it the
fifteenth, time? – that he had eluded her. But here she was, coming
for him like a mythical exterminating angel, indestructible and
implacable.
His life had been reduced to the two of them. Nothing else existed
outside the wall of white – snow and ice and the wispy
brushstrokes of fishing cottages, deep red with white trim, small,
compact, containing only what was necessary.
Using grammatical metalanguage
Use grammatical terms but explain them through examples
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Hearing the terminology used in relevant contexts may support
learning;
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Being able to use the terminology allows for more succinct talk
about writing but the terminology may be a barrier for some
students;
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Providing examples allows students to access the structure and
discuss its effect even if they don’t remember the grammatical
name.
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Seeing examples is more concrete learning compared with the
abstract learning needed with terminology
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A classroom example
Context: writing a persuasive speech
Learning Focus: how modal verbs can express different levels of
assertiveness or possibility in persuasion
Resource with modal verbs listed:
can; could; may; might; must; shall; should; will; would; ought to
TASK:
Imagine that you are the captain of your school sports’ team and
that you are losing badly at half time. Write a short ‘pep talk,’
arguing that it’s still possible to win, using some of these modal
verbs to predict what might / can / will happen in the second half.
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Writing Conversations
Encourage high-quality discussion about language and effects
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Constructive exploratory talk enables learning to develop;
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Teacher input is important in initiating learning but understanding
cannot be transmitted from teacher to student;
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Talk fosters discussion about choices, possibilities and effects;
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Talk may be the key to moving students from superficial learning
about grammar (eg add adjectives to create description) to deep
learning (eg some adjectives are redundant because the noun is
descriptive);
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Talk gives ownership to writers in making writerly decisions.
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A classroom example
Context: Writing Fictional Narrative
Learning Focus: how short sentences can create tension in
narrative
TASK:
In pairs, students read the account of the battle in Chapter
‘Twenty-five past three’ in Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo.
They find the six shortest sentences and then discuss where they
are placed. What part do they play in the narrative structure of
this incident? How well do they work for the reader?
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Authentic texts
Use authentic examples from authentic texts
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Writers need to explore what real writers do and the
choices they make;
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Using authentic texts makes meaningful links between
being a reader and being a writer;
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Using authentic texts allows teachers to choose texts
which will motivate and engage their students;
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Using authentic texts avoids the pitfalls of examples
artificially created to exemplify a grammar point which
have no resonance of truth.
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A classroom example
Context: Argument Writing
Learning Focus: how using an imperative opening sentence
followed by an emotive narrative can act as an effective hook for
a persuasive argument which follows.
TASK:
Picture the scene. There are dogs running wild around a
courtyard littered with muck and machinery. There are dogs
rammed in cages, noses pressed against the bars. There are
dogs whose fur is hanging in great clumps, with bare skin and
running sores. The noise of barking and yelping is deafening,
but in one cage a golden labrador lies silent, head on its paws,
looking at the yard with melancholy eyes.
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Creative imitation
Use model patterns for students to imitate
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Imitation is a scaffold which allows students to try out new
structures or new ways of expressing something;
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As a scaffold it fosters both success and experimentation;
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Imitation may help to embed new structures cognitively
within the student’s writing repertoire;
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Creative imitation is a first step in generating original
combinations.
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A classroom example
Context: Writing Poetry
Learning Focus: how noun phrases can evoke vivid images
Activity:
Using Roethke’s poem, Boy on Top of a Greenhouse,
students analyse how the poem is entirely comprised of a
series of expanded noun phrases with no finite verb. The
noun phrases build a detailed picture of the scene and the
absence of a finite verb creates a sense of a frozen
moment in time. Students use this as a model for writing
their own poem.
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Making design choices
Support students to design their writing by making deliberate
language choices
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Making choices gives more autonomy to the writer and less to
the teacher;
Choice-making fosters ownership and authorial responsibility;
Making choices more visible opens up the writing process,
making real the idea that writing is a complex act of decisionmaking
Encouraging writers to see that choices are available to them
avoids formulaic writing or checklist approaches;
Awareness of the importance of choices makes writers more
aware of a repertoire of infinite possibilities.
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A classroom example
Context: Writing Argument
Focus: How sentence length and sentence structure can be used
to create rhetorical effect in the closing of a persuasive
argument.
TASK:
Students are given the sentences from the final paragraph of a
persuasive speech, each sentence on a separate strip of paper.
They are given two sets of the same sentences. In pairs, they
create two version of the ending of the argument and discuss
the different ways the two versions work. Finally they choose
and justify the choice of their preferred version.
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Write two versions of the closing paragraph of a
persuasive speech using these 6 sentences.
Why are we doing this?
Otherwise, calm down and go home – please.
I lost my son.
Blacks, Asians, Whites – we all live in the same
community.
Step forward if you want to lose your sons.
Why do we have to kill one another?
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I lost my son. Blacks, Asians, Whites – we all live in
the same community. Why do we have to kill one
another? Why are we doing this? Step forward if you
want to lose your sons. Otherwise, calm down and go
home – please.
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Playful experimentation
Encourage language play, experimentation and risk-taking
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Playfulness helps writers to see the elasticity of language,
the possibilities it affords;
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Experimentation and taking risks are at the heart of
creativity;
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Writers need opportunities for constructive ‘failure’;
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Able writers often play safe and avoid trying out new ways
of writing;
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Playfulness is engaging.
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A classroom example
Context: Writing Poetry
Focus: how varying sentence structure and sentence length can
create different emphases in poetry.
TASK:
Using an exploded version of Sylvia Plath’s Mirror presented
alphabetically as a word grid, students are asked to generate
pairs of sentence, experimenting with the possibilities outlined
below:
◦ Beginning with a non-finite verb, adverb or prepositional
phrase
◦ Using a short verbless sentence
◦ Using a one word sentence
◦ Using repetition of a single word or short phrase.
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Summarising
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Writing is fundamentally about making choices and decisions.
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These choices can be explicit or implicit choices: as we become
more expert at writing, more and more choices become implicit
and internalised, but equally other choices become the focus of
explicit attention.
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Novice writers need support in understanding the choices that
are available to them in terms of content and ideas, text
structures, sentence and phrase structures and vocabulary.
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Focused engagement with reading texts can be converted in
more ‘writerly’ engagement with written texts.
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To help students understand the author’s craft requires explicit
teaching.
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The goal is to open up a repertoire of infinite possibilities, not to
impose formulaic ways of writing.
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