Young People's Writing in 2011: Findings from the National Literacy Trust's Annual Literacy Survey

This report only outlines findings that relate to writing, taken from the author's second annual literacy survey, which she conducted in November/December 2011. Nearly 21,000 young people aged 8 to 16 participated. Writing is an important issue in the UK today. While children's and young people's writing standards had plateaued between 2006 and 2009, levels at KS2 (11-year-olds) had increased slightly in 2010 and have increased again in 2011. However, writing is much more than just an educational issue--it is an essential skill that allows people to participate fully in today's society and to contribute to the economy. Because of the centrality of writing in people's lives, the survey provided the author with areas that she wanted to explore annually. More specifically, it explores how much young people enjoy writing, how good they think they are, how often they write and what types of materials they write, and how they feel about writing. Appended are: (1) An introduction to the National Literacy Trust annual literacy survey; (2) Methodology; and (3) Sample characteristics. (Contains 32 tables, 6 figures and 15 footnotes.) [Funding for this paper was provided by Slaughter and May.]