The opinion persists in some quarters that teaching children explicitly about language is retrogressive. One result of this inexplicitness, as Angela Goddard and Liz Armstrong point out, is that able pupils have often organised their own learning, while the remainder have suffered from basic misunderstandings about the nature of writing. It is difficult to believe that the diffusion of coherent knowledge about language does not help, as this excellent Key Stage 3 Writing should prove.

The photocopiable pack supports pupils of all abilities by breaking down writing into areas of linguistic skill that can be discussed, learned and practised. The eight self-contained sections incorporate spoken and written language and differences between genres; the writing process; grammatical and lexical features; the function of writing to inform, instruct, persuade and entertain.

The authors acknowledge their influences, in particular, the National Writing and LINC projects and the doyenne of writing development, Katharine Perera. Maybe their own work will exercise a similarly beneficial influence.