Student writers labeled "underprepared" by colleges often have trouble imagining themselves as scholars. Challenges these students routinely encounter include difficulty forming original insights and translating ideas to the page. Although the usage of the term "underprepared" varies across institutional contexts, the…

Only 25% to 38% of secondary education graduates in the United States are proficient readers or writers but many continue to postsecondary education, where they take developmental education courses designed to help them improve their basic academic skills. However, outcomes are poor for this population, and one problem may be that approaches to…

Mina Shaughnessy continues to exert powerful influences over Basic Writing practices, discourses and pedagogy thirty-five years after her death: Basic Writing remains in some ways trapped by Shaughnessy's legacy in what Min-Zhan Lu labeled as essentialism, accommodationism and linguistic innocence. High-stakes writing tests, a troubling hallmark…

Graduate students are typically expected to know how to write. Those who write poorly are occasionally penalized, but little in-class attention is given to help students continue to develop and refine their writing skills. More often than not, writing courses at the graduate level are remedial programs designed for international students and…

Describes a systematic intervention program used at the University of New Haven which increased the persistence of developmental composition students using seminars on goal setting, learning styles, time management, and career planning and informal counseling by mentors to meet students' affective and academic needs. (DMM)

When teaching remedial writing in a correctional facility, a teacher may carry assumptions shaped by formal education that do not always translate to a prison context. These include the idea that the classroom will provide a sphere of intellectual activity, immune from heavy-handed institutional intrusions; that students will want to get to know…

The four chapters of this book move from the history, philosophy, and approaches that writing laboratories encompass to a look at the many facets of their organization before treating in detail the actual teaching process and the practical elements of writing laboratory management. Chapter one notes the growth of writing labs and discusses…

This research project began as a quest to investigate more effective ways of addressing the needs of Developmental Reading and Writing students by using non-traditional pedagogies. (By non-traditional pedagogies, the paper means an escape from the traditional model in higher education of addressing reading and writing as two separate content…

This guide presents lesson plans for remedial writing classes for students who have failed the New York Regents Competency or Preliminary Competency Test in Writing. The guide consists of four units that cover: (1) organizing and reporting skills; (2) more advanced report writing skills; (3) persuasion; and (4) the persuasive essay based upon…

Presents a qualitative research study which thematically analyzes e-mail conversations exchanged by graduate students in a developmental writing program. Focuses on the relationship between these teachers and their students and addresses key issues in basic writing theory and practice. Suggests that graduate students can offer a unique perspective…

Although basic writing has become a strong independent field with professionally sanctioned ways of making knowledge, what Stephen North refers to as "lore" still maintains a strong foundation in the field. This lore is often grounded in the belief in a linear paradigm of learning, and is to some degree fostered by traditional conceptions of basic…

This proceedings document provides one to two page versions of papers presented on the theme of celebrating diversity in developmental education, focusing on the areas of research, administration and learning assistance, writing, reading, and mathematics. Papers include, among others: "Gender Differences in Variables Related to Academic…

The writing lab at a Florida two-year technical institute is designed to help students fulfill the writing requirements for their technical degree programs. In the lab, developmental students take composition courses that may be substituted for traditionally required composition courses in their programs. Some students take additional writing…

Because students in remedial classes often become better readers without becoming better writers, a year-long experimental "change of focus" in a Title I remedial program attempted to close this gap by placing a greater emphasis on overcoming writing skill deficits than on overcoming reading skill deficits. To address teacher concerns…

Discusses: (1) educational changes that have led to a national decline in literacy; (2) a college philosophy course in which students are trained to write philosophical essays; (3) ways to integrate reading and writing skills into the teaching of a discipline; and (4) college level mini-courses in reading and writing skills that supplement classes…