Demonstrates how an issue of the "Journal of Basic Writing," published in 1980 as a memorial for theorist Mina Shaughnessy, resembles structurally the funeral orations of Ancient Greece. Divides the issue into three parts: praise, lament, and consolation. Discusses political implications of the issue. (HB)

Considers Mina Shaughnessy's metaphor likening the experience of basic writers to that of "uncultured natives" under European colonization. Advocates decolonizing the classroom by devising a pedagogy of voice in a dialogized space that is continually reconstructed from different locations and identities. (HB)

Compares the work of nineteenth-century Scottish philosopher George Jardine with the work of modern theorists, particularly Mina Shaughnessy. Shows how they all created similar plans for meeting the needs of students without the basic skills needed for traditional modes of instruction. (HB)

Gives two anecdotes by practicing teachers of their experiences with basic writers. Provides thick descriptions of two different basic writing students' attempts to write stories. Gives insight into the writing processes of basic writers. (HB)

Considers the changing definition of "academic discourse" in basic writing instruction. Focuses on preparing students for success in school. Refines positions sketched in an earlier essay. Asserts that new forms of academic discourse mix traditional academic with non-academic discourses, reflecting the profound cultural mixing occurring in the…

Poststructural theory grapples with the hiddenness and complexity of oppression by questioning Western understandings of the self as a unitary, self-created, autonomous, essentialist entity. Feminist psychologists have shown that autonomy as a measure of maturity implies that women will never "grow up" because women's lives tend to be…

Examines a curious incident of racial tension in which an Asian teacher's approach to teaching writing became a subject of heated debate among white and black students. Probes the causes of tension within the class. (TB)

Argues that basic writing students need incremental assignment sequences to experience success in writing and to develop their abilities to write about abstract concepts. Describes a four-part sequence of writing assignments moving from observing to narrowing to generalizing to theorizing. (RS)

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.…

Suggests that educators have overemphasized the distinction between basic writers and academic culture while failing to underscore common ground between the two. Discusses the use of transportation and in-group metaphors that highlight differences between the groups. Identifies journalistic reading and positive high school writing experience as…

Argues that teaching reading and writing is not a matter of correcting errors or teaching the five-paragraph essay. Claims that it is instead a process of interdependence between the public and private, the individual and the group. Calls for a recognition of the role of interpretation in all meaning-making. (HB)

Draws an extended analogy between what composition instructors do in the classroom and the process of religious witnessing and conversion. Describes a process of conversion in the context of an antifoundationalist writing class pedagogy. (HB)

Provides responses by various scholars to two articles on teaching conflict and struggle and its relevance to the field of basic writing published in the December 1992 issue of "College English." (HB)

Presents the voices of basic writers, telling the importance of education in their lives and their struggles with it. Argues that basic writing merits support and should be regarded as college-level in its objectives and methods. Rejects the move to transform the mission of two-year colleges into one of narrowly defined developmental endeavors.…

More than ten years have passed since the widely publicized debate about personal and academic writing that played out in the 1990s between Peter Elbow and David Bartholomae. But the question of the relative merits of these two different types of writing for student writers continues to be an issue of concern for teachers of composition,…