This article explores one basic writer's evolution as he moves from the lowest level of developmental English at a community college to graduate with a Bachelor's degree. Combining personal narrative, essay excerpts, and textual analysis, this piece aims to expand the borders of scholarship in composition studies to include basic writers as…

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)

Background/Context: Twenty percent of first-year students in public 4-year institutions and 42% of first-year students in public 2-year institutions in the United States enroll in remedial courses. Yet despite widespread remediation across U.S. colleges and universities, there remains a great deal of uncertainty about how remedial courses develop…

Looks at how teaching basic writing is shaped by the material conditions of teachers working in those programs. Documents reactions of two writing programs on two different campuses to a 1991 statewide directive calling for the removal of all "remedial" courses from state campuses. Describes the programs' transformations after the directive, and…