Speaker: Debra Myhill, Professor of Education, Exeter University
Topic: Writing to Change the World
Abstract: This presentation will outline how a theoretical model of grammar as a
grammar of choice is an enabling tool for young writers, allowing them to develop an
understanding of how the choices they make as writers support their authorial
intentions and their awareness of how their writerly choices shape the reader’s
response. Underpinned by a Hallidayan conceptualization of grammar and meaningmaking, and Carter and McCarthy’s notion of ‘grammar as choice,’ it will argue that
grammar is wrongly conceived of as a mechanism for the surface correction of textual
errors; rather it is a tool for opening up young writers’ understanding of how to make
choices that satisfy their authorial intention for a piece of writing. We are less
interested in writers’ capacity to identify grammatical structures than in their capacity
to make linguistic choices: in other words, it is more important to know how a passive
construction alters the emphasis in information conveyed than it is to know that it is a
passive construction. These ideas will be explored in the context of teaching
persuasive writing and enabling students to see themselves as agents of change
through their writing.