The Science of Clear Writing

A 10-Module Academic Writing Curriculum for VWO 5 & 6 English​

Bridge the gap between VWO and university-level academic writing. Turn formulaic, AI-inflated essays into clear, precise, reader-focused prose—without increasing your grading workload. Aligned with the new curriculum targets 2026.

The challenge of teaching writing in VWO Upper Forms​

Most high school writing focuses heavily on grammar and formulaic structures (like standard essay templates loaded with "Furthermore" and "In conclusion"). Yet, when bright VWO students enter university, they struggle deeply with academic writing, often for years.

As a university academic writing teacher who trains Master’s and PhD students, I see your students a few years later. Students write to prove they know things and they create dense, unreadable prose. When I teach them the principles of clarity, they always say the same thing:

I wish I had learned this in high school.

Do you want to give your students the academic and critical thinking skills that will help succeed at university? The Science of Clear Writing brings these university-level clarity principles down to VWO 5 and VWO 6 classrooms. It shifts their mindset from writing for the teacher to writing for the reader.

Why you will love this curriculum​

1. It reduces your workload​

You do not need to grade 10 modules of writing. Modules 1 through 9 rely heavily on built-in, highly structured formative tasks, peer reviews, and interactive self-correction frameworks. You only grade a single, natural summative task at the very end (Module 10).

2. It is 100% AVG (GDPR) compliant & private​

The curriculum is designed to seamlessly integrate with the ReallyWrite Editor. Because ReallyWrite processes all text locally inside the student’s browser, it does not use cookies or require students to create an account. As a result, it requires zero administrative or ICT privacy approval from your school board.

3. It aligns perfectly with the new curriculum guidelines​

This course checks off your core requirements. It explicitly covers the written production strands to bridge the gap between secondary school English and university-level English:

• ET8 (Writing): Adjusting language to context, audience, and goal.
• ET11 (Language Choices): Reflecting on the precise structural effects of language on the reader.
• ET12 & ET14 (Digital Literacy & AI): Critical evaluation and ethical use of generative AI as a writing coach.

Curriculum Overview (10 Modules)​

The curriculum is built sequentially. Each module contains theory and interactive and independent practice sheets. Some also include a podcast. Module 10 includes a revision checklist to bring it all together.

• Module 1: Readers have Expectations’s Mindset – Shifting your mindset from writing to display knowledge to writing to communicate clearly.
• Module 2: The Core Sentence Structure – Developing a foundational grammatical skeleton for clarity.
• Module 3: Managing the Flow – Learning how to transition fluidly from sentence to sentence without clunky connecting words.
• Module 4: The Curse of Knowledge – Recognizing logical gaps in their own thinking and learning how to bridge them for the reader.
• Module 5: Defeating "Zombie Nouns" – Eliminating nominalizations to make texts more active and engaging.
• Module 6: Parallelism & Comparisons – Building balanced sentences that make complex arguments easy to digest.
• Module 7: Reducing Wordiness – Trimming academic fluff that mucks up the message.
• Module 8: Consistency in Vocabulary – Moving past artificial thesaurus usage to write with precision and authority.
• Module 9: Working Critically with AI – How to use LLMs ethically as structural revision coaches without losing your voice.
• Module 10: The Take-Home Message and Revision – A culminating exercise that assesses the skills from all modules.

License & Pricing Options​

We offer simple, flat-rate Department Licenses (Sectie-licenties). A single purchase licenses every English teacher at your school location to use the materials year after year.

Order for Your English Department​

Prefer to buy through traditional administrative procurement? We make this simple.

To purchase the Full 10-Module Department License, click below to pay securely online or request a formal school invoice.

Option A: Direct Digital Purchase​

Coming soon...

Option B: Request an Invoice for Your School Board​

Need a formal invoice sent to your financial administration department? Email us directly.

• Email: [email protected]
• Please include in your email:
  1. Name of your school
  2. School billing address
  3. Name of the contact teacher / Sectievoorzitter
  4. Your school's administrative reference code (if required)