At a time when various political and administrative bodies are calling for the dissolution of basic writing instruction on four-year college campuses, the need for information concerning the options available to university decision makers has become more and more pressing. A wide range of professional judgments surrounding this situation exits. Mainstreaming Basic Writers: Politics and Pedagogies of Access presents a range of positions taken in response to these recent challenges and offers alternative configurations for writing instruction that attempt to do justice to both students' needs and administrative constraints. Chapter authors include, for the most part, professionals entrusted with the role of advocating for a student population often described as "underprepared," "in need of remediation," and "at risk." Throughout the volume, contributors discuss current institutional developments and describe curricular designs that instructors searching for innovative ways to meet the needs of their heterogenous student populations will find helpful as models of college writing program curricula and administration. This book's focus is to give a fair representation of some of the more noted perspectives from nationally recognized scholars and administrators working in the field of basic writing. This presentation of key positions on the issue of mainstreaming basic writers at the college level is an important resource for all writing program administrators, composition and rhetoric students and scholars, and university decision makers from provosts to deans to department chairs.

Explores the many facets of the mainstreaming movement in college-level basic writing that are currently being debated. Examines the theoretical, political, & pedagogical concerns that arise as pressures push colleges to eliminate basic writing programs.

At a time when various political and administrative bodies are calling for the dissolution of basic writing instruction on four-year college campuses, the need for information concerning the options available to university decision makers has become more and more pressing. A wide range of professional judgments surrounding this situation exits. "Mainstreaming Basic Writers: Politics and Pedagogies of Access" presents a range of positions taken in response to these recent challenges and offers alternative configurations for writing instruction that attempt to do justice to both students' needs and administrative constraints. Chapter authors include, for the most part, professionals entrusted with the role of advocating for a student population often described as underprepared, in need of remediation, and at risk. Throughout the volume, contributors discuss current institutional developments and describe curricular designs that instructors searching for innovative ways to meet the needs of their heterogenous student populations will find helpful as models of college writing program curricula and administration. This book's focus is to give a fair representation of some of the more noted perspectives from nationally recognized scholars and administrators working in the field of basic writing. This presentation of key positions on the issue of mainstreaming basic writers at the college level is an important resource for all writing program administrators, composition and rhetoric students and scholars, and university decision makers from provosts to deans to department chairs.

Intended for teachers of basic writing, this book contains a collection of new and updated essays addressing issues surrounding underprepared writers. It maps errors and expectations for basic writing and develops teaching approaches that will be effective in a social and political world. The book considers concepts such as the possibility of eliminating basic writing through "mainstreaming" or other strategies; the relevance of contact zone pedagogies to basic writing; intersections between basic writers and other writers; the continuing distinction between matters of "style" and matters of "content"; feminist and post-colonial critiques of composition work; and the prevalent textual bias of research in composition. After an introduction, essays in the book are (1) "The 'Birth' of 'Basic Writing'" (Bruce Horner); (2) "Conflict and Struggle: The Enemies or Preconditions of Basic Writing?" (Min-Zhan Lu); (3) "Importing 'Science': Neutralizing Basic Writing" (Min-Zhan Lu); (4) "Redefining the Legacy of Mina Shaughnessy: A Critique of the Politics of Linguistic Innocence" (Min-Zhan Lu); (5) "Mapping Errors and Expectations for Basic Writing: From the 'Frontier Field' to 'Border Country'" (Bruce Horner); (6) "Re-Thinking the 'Sociality' of Error: Teaching Editing as Negotiation" (Bruce Horner); and (7) "Professing Multiculturalism: The Politics of Style in the Contact Zone" (Min-Zhan Lu). An afterword ("Some Afterwords: Intersections and Divergences" by Bruce Horner) is attached. Contains approximately 400 references. (CR)

Framed by historic developments—from the Open Admissions movement of the 1960s and 1970s to the attacks on remediation that intensified in the 1990s and beyond—Basic Writing traces the arc of these large social and cultural forces as they have shaped and reshaped the field.

The Hub offers reading/writing projects that will help you succeed in any college course, not just composition courses.