Describes a simple structuring device for teaching paragraphing skills which focuses the student's attention on the subject of the paragraph and a specific interest in the subject. Outlines how to use the method for showing basic writers how to proceed to longer compositions. (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…

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)

Claims that recent reassessments of Mina Shaughnessy's "Errors and Expectations" and the field of composition in the 1970s overlook the institutional forces that helped shape the rhetoric and methodology of researchers at that time. (HB)

Describes an exercise for basic writers which encompasses reading, listening, and writing. Finds that Edgar Allan Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart" has an effective vocabulary, a first-person conversational tone for the "mad" voice, and a second-person direct address that makes it easy to follow. Notes that inexperienced readers can…

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…

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,…

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)

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)

Finds that students who become part of an active, student-centered learning community have a greater change of succeeding in college than those who do not. Explores the nature and structure of learning community programs and what makes them so effective in contributing to the success of entering college students, English-as-a-second-language (ESL)…

Describes the relationship between reading and writing, particularly in the way that extensive reading can help writers improve their writing. Discusses four strategies a writing teacher used to revise a basic writing course. Shows how the strategies derive from current research. Describes briefly how the strategies are employed in designing and…