Dr Janet Dutton, a lecturer in secondary English at Macquarie University and the former HSC chief examiner for English, says that the discourse surrounding students’ writing in years 7-12 needs to be far more nuanced and evidence-based.
Nearly a decade's worth of NAPLAN data and a sweeping review of how writing will be taught in NSW has suggested that Australian students’ writing skills are in a sad state of decline.
In a recent Sydney Morning Herald story, academic Dr Russell Daylight (who teaches first-year university students how to write at Charles Sturt University) stated that his students can express themselves clearly when they speak but, when it comes time for writing, what they too often produce is a “confusing jumble of jargon, colloquialisms and random punctuation”.
But is this a beat-up? Or is there more to the story?
Dr Janet Dutton, a lecturer in secondary English at Macquarie University and the former HSC chief examiner for English, says that the discourse surrounding students’ writing in years 7-12 needs to be far more nuanced and evidence-based.