Successful writing in secondary education requires students to master various aspects of writing in order to communicate their subject knowledge successfully. One key aspect of effective writing is grammatical complexity, which concerns the linguistic structures that writers use to communicate their ideas.
What is grammatical complexity?
At its most basic level, grammatical complexity refers to the range and intricacy of grammatical constructions found in a text. This includes features such as sub-ordinate clauses, expanded noun phrases, and the different ways in which ideas are combined within a sentence. As students move through GCSE and A Level study, their writing typically becomes capable of expressing more nuanced, precise and abstract forms of thinking through these grammatical resources.
Grammatical complexity across subjects
As different disciplines require students to construct knowledge in different ways, these demands are often reflected in characteristic grammatical patterns. For example, scientific writing frequently relies on compressed noun phrases in contrast to subjects such as History and English Literature, which often require grammatical structures that enable evaluation, comparison and interpretation. Learning to write effectively within a discipline, therefore, involves acquiring not only specialist vocabulary, but also the grammatical structures (such as passive and active voice, length of sentence, sub-ordination, or co-ordination) that enable disciplinary ways of thinking.
Why is grammatical complexity important?
For researchers, patterns of grammatical complexity provide valuable evidence of how students’ written language develops over time. They can reveal shifts from more conversational forms of expression towards the highly condensed and specialised styles associated with academic discourse. For teachers, awareness of these patterns can help identify how students are meeting the linguistic demands of their subjects and where additional support may be beneficial.
Grammatical complexity and the BAWESS project
The BAWESS project will investigate grammatical complexity across a large collection of authentic GCSE and A Level exam-related scripts. By examining how grammatical features vary across subjects, educational stages and assessment contexts, the project will provide new insights into the development of disciplinary writing. Ultimately, this work will contribute to a better understanding of how students learn to communicate increasingly complex knowledge and ideas, helping to inform both linguistic research and educational practice.
