Literacy and the Practice of Writing in the 19th Century

Short essays were advocated, in suitable subjects such as political economy. Such exercises would harness writing skills to the promotion of ‘really useful knowledge’. Work would be read aloud. Each student would produce his corrections and the reasons for them in addition to discussion of the subject matter. This method was adopted almost universally by mutual improvement societies and in courses offered by institutions such as the People’s College, Working Men’s College, Birkbeck, lyceums, the education departments of cooperative societies and, later, the WEA.

Teaching and learning grammar overlapped with composition, which entered the official curriculum as a subject in 1871, though it had long been taught in voluntary schools and adult classes.

In adult education, attention to the development of writing and grammar was a key element of the WEA University Tutorial classes from 1907.