Covering such a range is a daunting task and credit is due to the author in tackling it as effectively as he has done. ... it will be of considerable assistance to teachers who are seeking to understand more about writing and who wish to take real steps forward in teaching the craft of writing" - Language and Learning The National Curriculum recommends that children, from the earliest age, learn to write texts for real purposes and real audiences. This real writing approach has been welcomed by teachers, but it raises some difficult questions concerning what we now call "compositional skills". How do we decide which are the most important of the forms of writing which we meet in real life? What are their chara