Describes a method by which teachers can introduce students to meaning and text through application of Mikhail Bakhtin's discourse theories. Explains that students are encouraged to reject common understandings of good writing. Identifies "daffy" definition exercises, newspaper editorial comparisons, and other activities that help…

Presents findings of a study comparing compositions by beginning writing and English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students at a two-year college. Reports similarities in the groups' topic choices, topic sentence use, and expository development. Reveals that ESL students tended to write shorter papers containing more sentence level errors. Discusses…

Contends that evaluations of student writing come not from some transcendent realm but from the discursive practices by which teachers authorize themselves within a given community. Argues that basic writers need explicit knowledge of such practices, and proposes a language-centered curriculum to teach it. (HB)

Argues that Mina Shaughnessy's view of language as a politically innocent vehicle of meaning overlooks basic writers' need to confront the dissonance they experience between academic and other discourses. Suggests educators need to abandon the limitations of the essentialist view of language informing their pedagogy. (KEH)

Examines the debate initiated by Thomas J. Farrell's 1983 article, "IQ and Standard English." Suggests the importance of social class in assessing the situation of basic writers coming to college from predominately oral cultures, who are generally unprepared to write critically, follow complex lines of argument, or handle new vocabulary…

Questions whether the benefits of separating basic writers into homogeneous classes continue to outweigh the disadvantages. Proposes that teachers gather data about success rates of current basic writing courses (using "mainstreamed" volunteer basic writers) and revise first-year composition courses to ensure they will respond to a wider range of…

Examines the work of representative scholars in the field of basic writing in terms of their pedagogical and theoretical assumptions about teaching academic discourse. Categorizes the scholarship into two theoretical schools of thought (i.e., inner-directed and outer-directed) and two pedagogical camps (i.e., freedom-directed and…

Addresses the problem of oversimplification among basic writers. Investigates the strategies and assumptions of basic writers in moving to oversimplify their writing. Presents case studies involving basic writers and analyzes them to determine the causes of oversimplification. (HB)

Describes the various "affective filters" that inhibit basic writers from learning to write. Suggests principles for avoiding such inhibitions among basic writers. Claims that such principles are an effective way of fostering writing development among basic writers. (HB)

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 why few students sought out and used resources in a heavily supported program that offered students a wide range of services to help them assume responsibility for their own writing. Considers under what circumstances students seek and not seek help. Concludes that students' perception of a context of care is crucial to their taking on…

Presents a holistic method for describing basic writers and their writing to encourage classroom research at two- and four-year colleges and enables comparisons of basic writers across institutions. Offers some preliminary results from the pilot study to illustrate the type of findings this approach yields and highlights the importance of such…

Notes that recent critiques of process approaches to writing claim that an implicit mode of instruction privileging mainstream students is typical of process approaches. Traces implicit instruction to the structuralist intellectual tradition. Concludes that a poststructuralist appreciation of differences, especially difference among discourses,…

Explains how faculty at Quinnipiac College reconceptualized developmental English and designed a new program that provides additional instructional time within the regular freshman English course. Finds that developmental students are better motivated and achieve growth in reading and writing commensurate with students who had a prior semester of…

Presents a sequenced writing assignment on shopping to aid basic writers. Describes a writing assignment focused around online and mail-order shopping. Notes steps in preparing for the assignment, the sequence, and discusses responses to the assignments. (SC)