Discusses how basic-writing students' use of the World Wide Web in the dialogic process can advance a number of pedagogical objectives as students enter the "conversation of ideas" through reading and writing. Considers how this technology also necessitates a reconsideration of the relationship between authority, academic discourse, and basic…

Argues that the "failure" of traditional writing instruction is actually its success, protecting the elite and maintaining inequality, which requires mass failure and illiteracy to preserve the unequal hierarchies now in place. Argues that bogus testing should be eliminated, basic writing mainstreamed into an expanded and untracked form of…

Discusses use of "mediated texts" as a classroom practice which meets requirements of "accommodation" for alternative demonstrations of competency in academic writing. Defines mediated texts, describes case studies which use these texts with deaf students who are basic writers; and shows connection between this heuristic and…

States that after a qualitative survey of participating instructors suggested the success of an in-class tutoring program at the open-admissions Kingsborough Community College, a quantitative survey compared the writing performance of students served by the program and those who were not. Indicates the program's success--more of those tutored…

Explains how a computer-based basic writing course relied on small group communication and cooperation to surmount fears of the computer and of writing. Argues that the course helped students work through the "I-You" polarity, the disparity between the author ("I") and the writer ("You"). (TB)

Examines methods for improving developmental students' proofreading skills. Discusses several theories and analogies for understanding the activity of proofreading. Suggests that educators should utilize methods that encourage students to invest time and energy in the proofreading process as it provides a meaningful and complex educational…

U.S. high school graduates for whom the home language is not English run the risk of inadequate preparation for the rigors of higher education. Whether this poor preparation is the result of disruptions caused by the transition to a new country/language/culture, or of a watered-down high school curriculum that reacts to language error but does not…

In this description of a learning community for "at-risk" and basic writing students at the University of Wyoming, I outline the reasons our students resist academic writing prior to their entry into college--reasons largely unrelated to typical perceptions of at-risk students as "lazy" or intellectually less capable. For…

This paper discuses a "basic" writing pilot program using portfolio-based instruction in two-year college English courses at the St. Louis Community College at Forest Park (Missouri). The first section of the paper offers a comprehensive overview of the benefits of portfolio-based instruction to students, teachers, and the…

While many factors contribute to success and/or failure in ABE (Adult Basic Education) and ASE (Adult Secondary Education) activities, ABE and ASE writers will succeed or fail in direct correlation to what is happening to their self-esteem in the context of writing instruction. The first guideline for teaching writing to adults is telling the…

A roundtable session at the 1992 Conference on College Composition and Communication explored the effects of portfolio evaluation on composition students, English faculty, and departmental administrators at two- and four-year campuses of the University of Alaska Southeast. Faculty from both four-year and two-year campuses found that portfolio…

Although Mina Shaughnessy remains influential in the basic writing field, her answers to the vital questions of who basic writers are and why they underachieve as writers are changing. Whether she intended to or not, Shaughnessy's book "Errors and Expectations" (published in 1977) was a major force in forming an image of basic writers as…

This report describes the developmental education program at Jefferson Davis Community College (JDCC) (Alabama). Approximately 59% of JDCC's student population must take pre-college, or developmental, courses in math, reading, English, and study skills. JDCC's developmental program includes computer-assisted instruction (CAI) in reading, math, and…

A seven-credit-hour block course, which includes Public Speaking (three institutional credits), Basic Writing (three program credits), and Reading (one program credit) was created at Murray State University to give at-risk freshmen an opportunity to take a university credit course (Public Speaking) while strengthening their reading and writing…

Examines phonological transfer in developmental student writing (spelling or word configurations that represent what the writer hears). Examines two discourse features--"by strings" and "topic/comment" sentence structures. Analyzes a developmental writing African American student's essay, demonstrating the power and tension in…