What follows is a simple assertion: time for basic writing to get out from under, a call for us to inculcate a Basic Writing Across the Curriculum. It is time yet again to move away from the concept that basic writers are in need of remedies, in part because all composition courses are in some sense remedial, and to a greater degree because the…

This article examines two course redesigns undertaken to improve student support, learning, and retention in the basic writing program at Oakland University, a doctoral research university in southeast Michigan, where support for developmental writers has fluctuated dramatically between nurture and neglect over the past fifty years. However,…

While many of these intelligences can be incorporated into the higher education classroom, intrapersonal intelligence poses some intriguing opportunities in the developmental writing classroom. As an instructor of developmental writing, the author stumbled upon the value of students developing their self-knowledge as an aid in learning to write…

This profile articulates the authors' response to a statewide mandate to eliminate "remedial" writing instruction at four-year public universities, including their own. The profile describes the difficulties the authors faced in responding to this initiative, given the context of their regional comprehensive university and its specific…

This essay looks to Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) for strategies that can be implemented in order to combat contemporary neoliberal attacks against the programmatic and institutional spaces of basic writing within Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs). Working from Nedra Reynolds' notion of thirdspace-oriented "dwelling"…

Postsecondary literacy instruction--the teaching of basic writing and transitional, or developmental, reading in community colleges and 4-year colleges--is an important and growing field, but also one still developing in key areas. In this article, we discuss three of these areas within which postsecondary literacy instruction can continue to…

The development of both the materials for an intermediate-level hybrid German writing course and the software in a virtual learning environment for the course may be viewed as activity systems. Viewing the individual components of each system as interrelated enables us to conceptualize the complexities of the development process, which goes well…

This article examines Yale's "Awkward Squad" of "basic" writers between 1920 and 1960. Using archival materials that illustrate the socioeconomic conditions of this early, "pre-Shaughnessy" site of remedial writing instruction, I argue for a re-definition of "basic" in composition studies using local, institutional values rather than generic…

This article addresses the issue of basic writing, demonstrating how one university's basic writing program acts as a steward of writing. The assumption that basic writers only consume resources rather than contribute to academic excellence is rejected. What links the author responses to this issue is a publication of student writing entitled…

Describes a statement of guidelines and goals developed for Boise State University's (BSU) basic writing course. Includes an account of local conditions at BSU, a copy of the statement itself with commentary on its seven competencies, a description of how the document was developed through a collaborative process, and the effects of that…

Presents a developmental perspective on text construction, understood as managing information within and across sentence boundaries. Claims that the systematicity in non-standard constructions in basic writer's texts reflects student awareness of three obligatory areas of information management in texts: topic management, reference tracking, and…

Describes an assignment that uses Spanish, Chinese, and French texts in addition to customary English texts, allowing class members to share one another's languages, embrace diversity, and shift privilege. Argues that this move foregrounds oppositional discourse for both students and faculty, creating classrooms in which "right thinking is…

Recounts the process of writing guiding curricular documents for the University of Minnesota - General College's basic writing program. Describes how this was a community-building process that involved a wide group of instructors and others connected to the program. Includes the opening statement, as well as the goals and principles of the…

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)

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…