The end result of the leaked Ofsted inspection guide for English is going to be thousands of GCSE essays that attempt to spot polyptoton in the wild and then have literally nothing to say about its usage. Because, at KS4, there is pretty much nothing to say about polypbloodytoton
Every exam board - who have spent the last two years telling us to stop teaching pointless Greek rhetorical terms - weeping, rending garments at this guidance.
It's a curriculum vision that fetishises magpied Classics knowledge delivered as trivia. 'Knowledge of Classical... theories, such as those of Aristotle.' And 'knowledge of devices used in Renaissance literature and knowledge of techniques of oratory from Classical civilisations'
@TabitaSurge Only correction here is that every exam board I know has been saying 'stop teaching pointless Greek rhetorical terms' for a lot longer - could be 10+ years I'd guess. (So I thought this screenshot must surely be satire...)
@TabitaSurge What's pointless about Greek rhetorical terms (not a rhetorical question)?
@TabitaSurge Isn't that an incomplete definition of polyptoton ? Because you can have words with a different beginning such as powered and overpowered. I mean if you can't adequately define polyptoton, what can you do ?
@TabitaSurge Personally I don't think it's a grounding in rhetorical techniques that is the problem (although niche terms should be introduced at A-Level rather than GCSE) so much as the idea that there is an 'established, impermeable literary canon'. F R Leavis continues to haunt us.
@TabitaSurge Absolutely. As a PE I can say this advice is bollocks.