Reviews an instructional strategy for remedial writers which consists of four steps: identifying a strategy worth teaching; introducing the strategy by modeling it; helping students to try it out with workshop-style teaching guidance; and then, helping students to work toward independent mastery. (TB)

Conducts a small-scale survey similar to one conducted by Maxine Hairston in 1979 to test whether nonacademic professionals' attitudes towards usage errors have changed in 20 years. Indicates a trend for respondents to find errors less bothersome than the respondents did 20 years ago. Supports the claim made by Hairston and other researchers that…

Looks at correctness in writing as a sociolinguistic phenomena that conveys information about the author in terms of his or her capacity to write as a college student and in a form commensurate with academic standards. Concludes that correctness has a sociolinguistic role crucial to the field of basic writing. (TB)

Traces the uses of the "urban mission" trope both nationally and locally as it pertains to the history of the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Educational Assistance Program. Maintains that educational histories are important because they explain how political dynamics determine who will be basic writers and how many will appear…

Uses student essays to illustrate the linguistic variations that many basic writing students bring to the academy and then offers some insights from second language acquisition and literacy studies that may help writing specialists enhance pedagogical practice to better serve these students. (SG)

Argues that student journals provide the basis for helping students learn to teach themselves and explore their attitudes and beliefs about writing, and strategies for writing. Reviews the historical uses of journals, the different educational uses of journals, and the use of the journal in the writing classroom. (DMM)

Describes a writing studio program that replaces the standard basic writing course by offering special assistance to certain students enrolled in mainstream writing classes. Examines how writing programs have been constructed to include such categories as "basic writer" and how students, teachers, and administrators can get beyond such…

Describes several basic writing research projects that reported results in the 1990's. Discusses the role of gender, the needs of special student populations, the influence of technology, and the importance of various testing and teaching strategies in writing programs. (16 references) (MAB)

Examines basic writers' analyses of essay examination questions. Reveals a number of preference patterns that may be weighed both against general teaching and assessment theory and against the particular constraints of specific contexts. Concludes that basic writers have much to contribute to the writing of essay examination questions and the…

Describes an assignment that introduces students to argument through a collaborative process of data collection and problem solving. States that the goal of the assignment is to build students' confidence in their ability to apply the kinds of thinking and writing strategies they will need to succeed in college. (PRA)

Discusses providing developmental learners with the opportunity to hear and respond to vignettes (short, descriptive literary sketches such as those in "The House on Mango Street"). Notes that the activity allowed students to experiment with another writing style and to use figurative language in a creative way. (RS)

Claims that recent reassessments of Mina Shaughnessy's "Errors and Expectations" and the field of composition in the 1970s overlook the institutional forces that helped shape the rhetoric and methodology of researchers at that time. (HB)

Offers descriptions of three class activities involving collaboration between basic composition and freshman composition classes, involving magazine production and peer response. (SR)

Represents an attempt to define the seriousness of errors by computerized tabulation and in a limited context, because no reliable accounting of general attitudes toward errors exists. (MG)

Examines the affective characteristics of basic writers and questions the hypothesis that they suffer from high writing apprehension and low self-esteem. Offers evidence of a group of basic writers in a larger group who had both low writing apprehension and high self-esteem. (MG)