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)

Presents the results of a questionnaire which asked students to distinguish the most helpful instructional factors and activities aiding their writing progress. Concludes that the student's voice is his/her most accessible tool for progress, that acceptance of the student's voice is crucial, and that the speaking-writing connection is the most…

Presents annotations of 179 writing textbooks (new texts or new editions of previously published texts) having a 1993 copyright date. Includes developmental and ESL writing texts, first-year writing texts, advanced writing texts, special texts, and professional texts. (RS)

Describes the sharing of authority that occurred during a collaboratively taught course for basic writing students, supported by real-time computer exchanges. Discusses the computer classroom, curriculum, assignments, collaborative teaching, and student responses to the course. (SR)

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)

Describes an activity to encourage students to write with specific details. Notes that (at the beginning of each class) students briefly jot down three things that have made them feel good on that particular day. Notes several other benefits of this activity. (SR)

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)

Suggests a nine-step summary writing strategy for use with secondary and college developmental readers and writers. (MG)

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…

Describes a language pedagogy which can help basic writers to understand language's potential to shape, not just to convey information about, social experience. States that students from diverse backgrounds can then more effectively critique the relationships of language's uses in a variety of social contexts. (PA)

Fuses theories about Basic Writers and writer's block. Addresses, through the use of hypertext, how computers can help Basic Writers who experience this writing difficulty. Discusses the two main branches of students' difficulties (problems with genre and problems with the linearity of texts) which may be partially alleviated through the…

Borrows a rhetorical device from Isocrates, imitation, then combines it with the descriptive structure of Liva Polanyi and the referential (rather than expressive) aim of discourse from James Kinneavy to improve student narratives and prepare them for academic discourse. Describes how students imitate the structure of a brief poem, and they use…

Uses the University of Washington as a case study illustrating the double bind basic writing programs are caught up in at public research institutions on the West Coast. Claims the university's Educational Opportunity Program writing sequence is at risk in the face of the anti-affirmative action movement, Initiative 200. (NH)

This article examines the relationship between the use of online tutoring sessions and student success in developmental writing courses. The results suggest a statistically significant difference between the success rates, as measured by course grades, of those students who use the tutoring service and those who do not, thus suggesting the…