Learning centers are designed to assist and guide the capable but fundamentally ill-prepared students in acquiring needed background. (MM)

Concern over the inadequate writing skills of college freshmen can be traced back at least a hundred years. (JH)

The back to basics movement in freshman English is anti-intellectual in that it is based on feelings rather than knowledge or fact. (DD)

An interview with William Lutz, Director of Freshman English at Rutgers University, and Edward M. White, Director of the California State University and Colleges English Equivalency Examination. (DD)

Writing problems in the basic college freshman writing course result from the students' misconception that once they get the required number of words down on paper their compositions are unalterable, and teachers' misconception that serving as an editor, correcting errors and rewriting sentences, is an effective teaching tool. Students'…

Teaching grammar to freshman composition students can be accomplished without turning the class into a remedial course or expending an undue amount of either student or teacher energy. Before grammar can have meaning for students, however, writing itself must become important to them. The teaching of the mechanics of language, therefore, should…

The suggestions in this paper offer some alternatives to the traditional perfunctory "remedial" programs that open the doors to hundreds of students and then fail to followup on the students' progress. General objectives of a basic skills program for open-admissions inner-city students should include the following: (1) To help each student…

Shows how the study of literature and the skills of writing and thinking can be mutually reinforcing activities. (DD)

Presents sentence-combining exercises that can help basic writing students to produce correct surface-structure transformations in their writing. (HTH)

This study was conducted to determine whether or not a lack of emphasis on grammar instruction and exercises would impede students' abilities to overcome basic writing deficiencies. Both groups of students (intensive grammar instruction and minimal instruction) showed significant improvement in correcting high frequency errors in grammar and…

Discusses remedial English programs at City University of New York and City College of New York. (DD)

This paper describes a developmental course in writing skills designed for college freshmen and offers guidelines for gaining acceptance of the course in the college community. The course consists of six credits of work earned in two semesters. Each week, students are required to attend three class periods, one writing laboratory session, and one…

Coordinated assignments required undergraduates to use skills in three linked introductory courses: computer science, library research, and economics. First-year students achieved the same level of mastery as students in traditional sections of the courses, and they felt the courses enhanced learning. (SK)

Competency assessment is used for diagnostic purposes at the City University of New York (CUNY) Queens College. CUNY had decided that all students admitted after 1987 be tested. In addition, minimum competencies were required after the completion of 60 credits. Queens College chose to use the tests for entering freshmen for placement decisions,…

According to a report from the University of New Mexico (UNM) 52 percent of Del Norte High School's (Albuquerque) graduates who entered UNM in the fall of 1979 were placed in at least one Basic Skills class, designed to assist beginning students whose American College Test (ACT) scores showed deficient college preparation in raising their academic…