“Writing sux!” Boys and writing: What’s the problem?

In a study based on a survey of Year 11 students, boys reported a higher level of negative writing satisfaction and less writing enjoyment in the English classroom than girls did. Boys and girls preferred different writing genres. While students did not see writing as inherently gender-biased, they did seem aware of differential outcomes in how boys' and girls' writing was regarded and valued by others. There was also a clear indication that boys' writing styles were not the ones preferred in curriculum discourses.