An Open Letter to the Education Secretary, Ofqual and STA... Cecilia Busby

 I have been pondering the issue of children's writing in primary schools ever since I came across a teacher who had banned the word 'big' in his year 6 classroom. (I blogged about this on ABBA a while ago here). Recently, a few other friends mentioned being disturbed by the over-emphasis on 'interesting words' in children's writing. So I decided it might be time to try and make an intervention. I have talked to people at the Standards and  Testing Agency, who set and mark school assessments, and they suggested I write in more formally. So here is my first draft of a letter to go to Nicky Morgan, Secretary of State of Education, as well as executives at Ofqual and the STA. If there are other children's writers out there who would like to sign it (and/or have suggestions about additions or changes in wording) please get in touch via twitter or my website!)

(N.B. the version below is the latest edited version and will be the one going to Nicky Morgan, along with 45 names of children's authors)

We are a group of children’s writers who have become increasingly concerned about the teaching of writing in recent years, particularly in primary schools. As professional writers, we often visit schools to promote reading and encourage creativity and enjoyment of writing among children of primary age. We have all noticed a very damaging tendency for children at primary schools to be steered towards certain styles of writing in line with the assessment criteria used to measure children’s levels of attainment. As a result, their writing is in general less fluent, clear and engaging and has a tendency to be too elaborate, flowery and over-complex. This has knock-on effects on their writing at secondary school and has been noticed by some of us in students at university level.

National Curriculum guidance on the use of ‘varied vocabulary’ and ‘imaginative language’ has meant in practice (and we have all seen examples of this in classrooms) that children are taught not to use simple words such as ‘good’, ‘bad’, ‘small’ or ‘big’ but to always find other more ‘interesting’ words to replace them – such as ‘wonderful’, ‘terrible’, ‘minuscule’ or ‘enormous’. They are also taught never to use ‘and’ or ‘said’ if they can shoehorn in ‘additionally’ or ‘exclaimed’, and are encouraged wherever possible to use personification, metaphor, similes and subordinate clauses.

Because these words and constructions are handed to children as ‘better’ alternatives to simple words or shorter, simpler sentences, they do not come across them in context. They fail to understand the nuances of their use, and they also fail to realise that they are relatively unusual – that they are used sparingly in good writing. For every use of the word ‘minuscule’ in actual books, there are probably twenty uses of the word ‘small’.

We would urge the government, Ofqual and the Standards and Testing Agency to consider ways in which they can make it quite clear to teachers and assessors that complex vocabulary, figurative language and complicated sentence structures should be used with caution and their use should always be subordinate to good, clear and fluent style. Otherwise we risk producing a generation of children who believe that a sentence such as ‘I bounded excitedly from my cramped wooden seat and flung my arm gracefully up like a bird soaring into the sky’ is always better than ‘I stood and put my hand up’.

Cecilia Busby writes fantasy adventures for children aged 7-12 as C.J. Busby. Her latest book, The Amber Crown, was published in March by Templar.

www.cjbusby.co.uk

@ceciliabusby

"Great fun - made me chortle!" (Diana Wynne Jones on Frogspell)

"A rift-hoping romp with great wit, charm and pace" (Frances Hardinge on Deep Amber)