The place of grammar in an English or literacy curriculum has long been a source of debate, one in which professionals, politicians and the public have often engaged with unbridled enthusiasm. As such, the debate has sometimes been characterised more by ideology or polemic, than by intellectual engagement with the core ideas. In part, this is because grammar has become inextricably intertwined with notions of correctness and standards. Education policies for English have vacillated over the role of grammar in the curriculum. Given the perennial arguments about the value of grammar, the authors felt it was important to undertake some robust research that examined the effectiveness of embedded grammar teaching in developing young people's writing. To determine the impact of the contextualised teaching of grammar, they compared students' writing scores at the start and the end of the study in these pieces of writing. In tandem with the statistical analysis, the research team observed lessons, interviewed teachers and students, and collected samples of writing for each of the genres. The research results indicate that there was a significant positive effect for students in the group using their teaching schemes. The research has provided strong evidence for the value of using grammar as a way to help young writers develop understanding of meaning-making resources but it has also highlighted some of the broader issues related either to the teaching of grammar or the teaching of writing.