In "A New World: Redefining the Legacy of Min-Zhan Lu"(JBW 27.2, Fall 2008), Brian Ray revisits the controversy that emerged in the early 1990s in response to critiques of the iconic Mina Shaughnessy made by Min-Zhan Lu. He offers a reading of the debate that focuses on common ground between the two sides through a metaphor of linguistic charity…

This article explores the particular challenges and possibilities of service learning pedagogy for basic writers. Because a number of scholars of service learning and basic writing (Adler-Kassner, Arca, and Kraemer) are concerned primarily with developing underprepared students' academic literacies, I investigated how the students in a service…

Literacy narratives have been pedagogically important in writing instruction, particularly in the basic writing class, as a means for students to interrogate the politics of language and education and thus to establish a critical connection to writing. But the literacy narrative as a critical genre is problematic. Such narratives often are…

Argues that, especially in culturally diverse classrooms, students' stories can be a rich source of information about their worlds, values, and linguistic styles. (RS)

Argues that composition courses for non-native speakers of English should combine reading, writing, grammar, aspects of American culture, and methods for developing the analytic skills expected in upper-level courses. Shows how teaching short stories and autobiographical essays is the most productive way to accomplish these goals. (MM)