Writing (in) the nation

The current version of the draft National Curriculum (1.0.1) remains a document which dis-integrates the subject through its three strands and fails to conceptualise a relationship between these strands. Drawing on curriculum history, I argue that this stands in strong contrast to a curriculum such as the 1971 NSW Syllabus for Years 7–10, which was integrated by an overarching vision that dealt with language modes, contexts, knowledges and skills. This vision was partly provided by the work of James Moffett, on whose work I draw to address the National Curriculum approach to writing in particular. I adapt Paris’s notion of ‘constrained’/ ‘unconstrained’ skills in order to argue for a renewed concern with rhetoric and style and for actively teaching towards ‘surprise’.