One of the most important advantages to using literature with developmental writing students is that some pieces can be used as illustrations of important rhetorical principles and strategies that the instructor would like students to use in their own writing. The most important reason to use literature has to do with its usefulness as a source of…

Posits that basic writing serves a vital function by providing writing support for at-risk students and serves the needs of a growing student population that universities accept yet feel needs additional writing instruction. Concludes that the basic writing classroom is the most effective educational support for at-risk students and their writing.…

Describes both past and more recent efforts by the California State University (CSU) system to come to terms with "remediation." Describes recently mandated collaborations between high school language arts faculty and CSU English faculty to reduce the need for remediation. Describes an ongoing outreach program addressing the needs of…

Discusses training as a gesture made within institutional power structures that can be influenced in various ways to help bring about good basic writing instruction. Offers questions, observations and discussion with the hope that others will re-consider training as an institutional presence made visible through their own campus configurations of…

Presents a conversation that is designed to get at the differences in definitions of basic writing across institutional boundaries, divergences in placement procedures and assessment mechanisms, and problems theoretical work has had historically in tackling the issues of central importance to educators and their students. Concludes with…

Discusses how various factors combined to move Chabot College, a California community college, towards creating a mission statement for all their English courses and within that context, one for their basic writing courses. Notes that the context for the creation of the mission statement includes a commitment to basic writing as a legal mandate,…

Examines whether prerequisite relationships exist between five analytical components of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) composition: content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics. Finds the need for an approach to writing which recognizes that "separate skills" are actually highly interrelated. (MM)

Describes the effects on the teacher and students of a collaborative teaching/research project in which the basic-writing students researched their own writing with the teacher. Notes that the basic writers became more interested in their own writing and learning. (RS)

Presents a questionnaire that helps gather valuable information about students' attitudes toward mandatory placement in basic writing courses. Concludes that with the kind of information gleaned from responses to questionnaires similar to this one, educators can better understand the strengths and weaknesses of basic writing programs and revise…

Claims compositionists misrecognize stylistic and institutionalized conventions of academic discourse in their own rhetoric and in the evaluation of their students. Argues that students should be included in the practices by which compositionists "normalize" these conventions. Suggests how students might be included in the evaluative…

Notes that writing instructors want to resist authoritarian classroom arrangements because they want students to be active in their education and in their lives. Describes efforts to develop a "new model of authority, a new space," using peer group leaders, advanced standing students who facilitated writing groups in a first-year basic writing…

Explores some of the differences between faculty and policy advocates by analyzing spatial/directional metaphors used by individuals in each professional domain to describe notions of access and standards. Notes that advocates in the policy-oriented discourse tend to use vertical metaphors, while educators engaged in pedagogical discourse tend to…

Discusses the implications of considering different writing components (lexical, syntactic, and rhetorical) separately, in an effort to avoid problems of writing evaluation. Proposes that instead of "balancing" these components, teachers should separate them in working to establish curricula for English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students. (MM)

Describes five categories of software that can be useful in the basic writing classroom: computer-assisted instruction, computer-controlled instruction, artificial intelligence, computer-based rhetorical invention, and word processing. Evaluates each type of software in terms of their ability to fulfill the goals of basic writing instruction to…

Argues that the identity of basic writing (its status and position) is a function of larger institutional decision-making processes and therefore the focus of efforts to change basic writing should also engage these institutional processes. Focuses on how participating in technology design can be a wedge for engaging in decision making about the…