Journal of Basic Writing

Volume 18 Issue 1, Spring 1999

Table of Contents

Editors' Column

· Marilyn Sternglass, "Students Deserve Enough Time to Prove They Can Succeed"

· Daniela Liese, "Review Essay on Marilyn Sternglass's _Time To Know Them_"

· Tracey Baker and Peggy Jolly, "The "Hard Evidence": Documenting the Effectiveness of a Basic Writing Program"

· Eleanor Agnew and Margaret McLaughlin, "Basic Writing Class of '93 Five Years Later: How the Academic Paths of Blacks and Whites Diverged"

· Sibylle Gruber, "On the Other Side of the Electronic Circuit: A Virtual Remapping of Border Crossings"

· Laurie Grobman, "`I Found It On the Web, So Why Can't I Put It In My Paper?': Authorizing Basic Writers"

· Beth Counihan, "Freshgirls: Coping with Discordant Pedagogies and the Anxiety of Leaving Home"

News and Announcements

Abstracts, volume 18 Issue 1, Spring 1999

Marilyn S. Sternglass

“Students Deserve Enough Time to Prove that They Can Succeed”

Public higher education, in particular, is being brought under intense political pressure to demonstrate that students are proficient in basic skills before they matriculate or by the end of their first semester. Through longitudinal research, it is possible to demonstrate that students acquire the necessary skills over time to succeed academically and professionally. A case study of a basic skills student at City College of City University of New York, who was followed throughout the six years of her academic studies, reveals that through persistence and instructional support, such students can successfully complete their studies and become contributing members of society.

Daniela Liese

“Marilyn Sternglass’s Time to Know Them: A Review Essay

This paper critically examines Marilyn Sternglass’ s Time to Know Them in light of the troublesome trend in decreased funding for remedial programs that is emerging in colleges across the nation. Sternglass’ s work is the first longitudinal study of writing and learning at a college level that takes into account not only students’ academic lives but also their personal lives. Sternglass uncovers a complex network of factors contributing to the development of students as complex thinkers and mature writers and paints a clear picture of students struggling but succeeding despite societal constraints, family and work responsibilities and decreased government funding.

Tracey Baker and Peggy Jolly

“The ‘Hard Evidence’: Documenting the Effectiveness of a Basic Writing Program

This manuscript demonstrates and presents the program evaluation of one basic writing program. Based on a two-year study that targets 685 basic writing students, we hypothesize that these students achieve similar or higher retention rates than those of regularly- admitted students. The authors, who studied four variables which are nominally rated—retention rate, current classification, grade point average, and writing course sequence completed—discuss how each contributes to the successful retention rate of these basic writing students.

Eleanor Agnew and Margaret McLaughlin

“Basic Writing Class of ’93 Five Years Later: How the Academic Paths of Blacks and Whites Diverged”

The results of this five-year longitudinal study of 61 basic writers suggest little correlation between the first-year course and overall success in college. The most startling finding, however, is the much lower long-term success rate for African-American basic writers who passed the basic writing course. The article suggests that reading, not writing, is a stronger determinant of college success for at-risk students and that institutions should strengthen first-year reading programs. Furthermore, at-risk African-American students may need stronger non-academic support.

Sibylle Gruber

“On the Other Side of the Electronic Circuit: A Virtual Remapping of Border Crossings”

Research in computers and composition has contributed to a multitude of insights important to scholars and educators interested in computer-supported writing instruction. However, the field has not yet engaged in critical discussions of nontraditional students’—especially African-American students’—interactive strategies in online communication. To provide a starting point for critical explorations of African-American students’ computer-based interaction, this paper analyzes how an African-American male student negotiates his multiple subjectivities in a largely white university setting and in a male-dominated society. Specific examples from online transcripts generated in a basic writing class show that he is “otherized” in an anglophile environment but also “otherizes” in a patriarchal and homophobic society. By foregrounding the different voices he brings to the classroom, this study undermines oversimplified dichotomies of majority and minority discourses and instead argues for accepting diverse and sometimes contradictory subject positions of all participants in interactive communities.

Laurie Grobman

“’I Found It on the Web, So Why Can’t I Put It Into My Paper?’: Authorizing Basic Writers”

The World Wide Web dramatically transforms basic writers’ dialogic processes because Web source texts do not undergo conventional review processes to establish credibility. However, basic writing students’ use of the World Wide Web in the dialogic process can advance a number of pedagogical objectives as students enter the “conversation of ideas” through reading and writing, particularly in terms of how basic writers become authorized in the academic community.1 Student evaluation of Web source texts not only makes visible how authorization occurs but engages students in this process. Moreover, the questionable quality and credibility of Web-based source texts in the dialogic process brings the related skills of critical reading and thinking, of particular importance to underprepared writers, to the forefront of classroom pedagogy. Paradoxically, though, this technology also necessitates a reconsideration of the relationship between authority, academic discourse, and basic writers.

Beth Counihan

“Freshgirls: Overwhelmed by Discordant Pedagogies and the Anxiety of Leaving Home”

Drawing from a semester-long ethnographic case study of three freshmen at Lehman College of the City University of New York, the author looks at the very difficult situation underprepared students encounter. To succeed in college, they must change nearly everything about themselves—particularly their class and cultural identification. Resisting this change, the freshgirls fail. What teachers can try to do to help students relax and learn, this study suggests, is to exercise flexibility in their pedagogies.