Good questions, Christine! Adding vital wheat gluten can certainly help give your whole wheat loaves structure, but you're still likely to end up with an extremely dense bread without the use of any white flour, especially since this particular recipe also includes oats and a variety of additional ingredients. As far as scoring goes, a quick and decisive movement using the corner of your lame is key. But aside from technique and the sharpness of the blade, the two most common issues in scoring are 1.) a dough that has been shaped with too little surface tension (you can find more guidance on shaping here) and 2.) dough that has risen a bit too long, leaving it prone to collapse. Tightening up your shaping a bit and experimenting with a slightly shorter second rise (along with plenty of practice) should help you get closer to where you'd like to be with scoring. Best of luck, and happy baking! 

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