Morally, of course lying is unethical. But if we demand students write about nothing but their personal experiences, their essays will become nothing but journals. If so, how could we expect these students to develop imaginative faculties?

For students, writing compositions is essentially a method to hone writing skills, which can't be separated from fantasy. It is against the purpose of the teaching of writing to consider fabrication harmful to students' integrity.

Xia Huiping (Changhe Morning News): When primary school students make up stories while writing compositions, they are using their very own creative imagination and turning writing into literary fabrication. When they were writing, they didn't intend to lie to teachers or to parents. Instead, they were experiencing the joy of creation. In reality, I believe few teachers tell students writing compositions requires "lying." Therefore, we should not construe allowing students to make up stories as schools neglecting to inculcate integrity. Much less can we conclude the biggest problem of the teaching of writing is it fails to take into account honesty and integrity as basic elements of education.

Really harmful

Xiao Ying (China Youth Daily): People tend to blame how writing is taught in primary and secondary schools for "lying in compositions." That's true since the biggest failure of teaching is making composition writing purely skills training rather than an opportunity for self-expression. Under such a system, children will regard writing as only a means to earn good marks on exams. Therefore, they won't hesitate to lie in compositions.

But pedagogy is not the only cause of rampant lying in compositions. Our society is in the midst of an integrity crisis, which is not an environment where children learn to be honest. Mainstream values put excessive emphasis on personal success while ignoring the cultivation of social responsibility and conscience.

"Lying in compositions" doesn't only produce bad articles, but also negatively impacts children's mental growth by making them less independent and responsible. In a society where "lying in compositions" is accepted and the qualities of honesty, sincerity and integrity are overlooked, children cannot write well and may choose to give up their pursuit of truth. Why is plagiarism so widespread in China's academic and literary arenas? Those scholars and writers were so used to "lying in compositions" as students.

To eliminate this phenomenon, we need to reform the teaching of writing in schools and address the lack of integrity in Chinese society.

Rong Guoqiang (Qianjiang Evening News): Some people argue allowing students to make up stories helps to nurture their imaginations. If this were true, Chinese people would have become very creative. Take the writing of science fiction, for example. Our imaginative forays are nothing to be proud of. China did not have any influential science fiction works until the 1980s. So far, we don't even have a handful of widely acknowledged science fiction writers. If "lying in compositions" really helps the cultivation of imagination, why is the creation of science fiction in China so unproductive?

Instead of cultivating imagination, "lying in compositions" can kill imagination. The common problem of compositions with made-up stories is the degree of similarity in content and writing style. By contrast, the fundamental basis of imagination is individuality. How can these "lying compositions" have any individuality or imagination without emotional input from authors?

Mengmu Erzi (hlj.rednet.cn): Some people believe the education system and teachers' instruction should be responsible for the appearance of "lying compositions." I don't think this is fair since our society should also take part of the responsibility. Schools, teachers and students are not immune to the influences of the social environment.

I oppose defining "lying compositions" as imaginative articles, because it removes the responsibility for this phenomenon from society, schools and teachers and makes children think "lying" is acceptable.

Xu Chaojun (www.dahe.cn): The teaching of writing in primary and secondary schools is essentially to train students to express their true feelings with words. Tolerating "lying in compositions" runs counter to this purpose and allows children to get into the habit of lying. In the long run, it could harm children's growth in language learning and the formation of social behavior.