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Writing Center

Faculty Resources: Best Practices in Teaching Basic Writing

Central to the success of this project is the establishment of a statewide initiative, Understanding the Developing Writer, as a venue for the exchange of best practices information and the critical examination of various recommendations to increase student progression beyond pre-transfer level writing.

We have begun to conduct a review of the literature and have compiled some of our findings into a bibliography on basic writing. Consider these pages as an ongoing compilation of work that researchers and theorists active in the field of basic writing consider useful. Because we plan to add new entries as we go along, expect for this section to continue to grow.

Below is a list of recommended texts, web sites, and other resources in the study of developmental or basic writing. Please continue to visit the site regularly for updated information. Anyone interested in contributing additional listings, please contact Juanita Alunan at College of San Mateo.

Basic Writing Reading List


  • Bartholomae, David. "The Study of Error." College Composition and Communication 31 (October 1980): 253-269.

  • Bartholomae, David. "Writing with Teachers: A Conversation with Peter Elbow." College Composition and Communication 46 (February 1995): 62-71.

  • Bartholomae, David and Petrosky, Anthony R. Facts Artifacts and Counterfacts. Upper Montclair, NJ: Boynton/Cook, 1986.

  • Bartholomae, David, et. al. "Interchanges: Responses to Bartholomae and Elbow." College Composition and Communication 46 (February 1995): 84-107.

  • Bazerman, Charles. "A Relationship between Reading and Writing: the Conversational Model." College English 42 (February 1980).

  • Belanoff, Pat. "The Myths of Assessment." Journal of Basic Writing 10 (1991): 54-67.

  • Bizzell, Patricia. "What Happens When Basic Writers Come to College?" College Composition and Communication 37 (October 1986): 294-301.

  • Bizzell, Patricia. "Literacy in Culture and Cognition" in Theresa Enos, Ed. 1987.

  • Bruffee, Kenneth A. Collaborative Learning: Higher Education, Interdependence, and the Authority of Knowledge. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1994.

  • Bruffee, Kenneth A. A Short Course in Writing. 4th ed. New York: HarperCollins, 1994.

  • Connors, Robert J. "Basic Writing Textbooks: History and Current Avatars" in Theresa Enos, Ed. 1987.

  • D'Eloia, Sarah. "The Use and Limits of Grammar" in Theresa Enos, ed. A Sourcebook for Basic Writing Teachers, p. 373-416. New York: Random House, 1987.

  • Dickson, Marcia. It's Not Like That Here: Teaching Academic Reading and Writing to Novice Writers. Portsmouth: Boynton/Cook, 1995.

  • DiPardo, Anne. A Kind of Passport: a Basic Writing Adjunct Program and the Challenge of Diversity. Urbana: NCTE,1993

  • Dunn, Patricia. Learning Re-abled. Boyton/Cook, 1995.

  • Elbow, Peter. "Being a Writer vs. Being an Academic: A Conflict in Goals." College Composition and Communication 46 (February 1995): 72-83.

  • Elbow, Peter. Writing Without Teachers. New York: Oxford UP, 1973.

  • Emig, Janet. "Writing as a Mode of Learning." College Composition and Communication 28 (1977): 122-128.

  • Enos, Theresa, Ed. A Sourcebook for Basic Writing Teachers. New York: Random House, 1987.

  • Flower, Linda. "The Construction of Purpose in Writing and Reading." College English 50 (September 1988): 528-50.

  • Glau, Gregory R. "The 'Stretch Program:' Arizona State University's New Model of University-level Basic Writing Instruction." WPA: Writing Program Administration 20 (1996):79-91.

  • Hanson, Sandra Sellers and Leonard Vogt. "A Variation on Peer Critiquing" in Theresa Enos, ed A Sourcebook for Basic Writing Teachers, p.575-583. New York: Random House, 1987.

  • Harrington, Susanmarie, and Linda Adler-Kassner. "The Dilemma that Still Counts." Journal of Basic Writing 17 (1992): 3-24.

  • Harris, Muriel, and Katherine E. Rowan. "Explaining Grammatical Concepts." Journal of Basic Writing 6 (Fall 1989): 21-41.

  • Hartwell, Patrick. "Grammar, Grammar, and the Teaching of Grammar" in Theresa Enos, Ed. 1987, p.348-372.

  • Haswell, Richard, and Susan Wyche-Smith. "Adventuring into Writing Assessment." College Composition and Communication 45 (May 1994): 220-236.

  • Hawisher, Gail E., and Cynthia L. Selfe, eds. Critical Perspectives on Computers and Composition Instruction. New York: Teachers College, 1989.

  • Hilgers, Thomas. "Basic Writing Curricula and Good Assessment Practices." Journal of Basic Writing (Fall 1995).

  • Hillenbrand, Lisa. "Assessment of ESL Students in Mainstream College Composition." Teaching English in the Two-Year College 21.2 (May 1994): 125-130.

  • Hillocks, George. Teaching Writing as Reflective Practice. Columbia University: Teacher's College Press, 1995.

  • Hillocks, George Research on Written Composition : New Directions for Teaching. New York: National Conference on Research in English & Urbana, Ill. : ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, National Institute of Education, 1986.

  • Horner, Bruce. "Discoursing Basic Writing." College Composition and Communication 47.2 (1996): 199-222.

  • Hunt, Kellogg W. "Grammatical Structures Written at Three Grade Levels" NCTE Research Report No. 3 (NCTE: Urbana, 1965).

  • Hunter, Paul and Pearce, Nadene. " Basic Writers: The Writing Process and Written Products" Teaching English in the Two-Year College 14 (Dec. 1987), 252-64.

  • Kasden, Lawrence, and Daniel Hoeber, eds. Basic Writing: Essays For Teachers, Researchers, Administrators. Urbana, IL: NCTE,1980.

  • Kaufer, David S., John R. Hayes, and Linda Flower. "Composing Written Sentences." Research in the Teaching of English 20 (May 1986), 121-41.*

  • Kroll, Barry M., and John C. Schafer. "Error-Analysis and the Teaching of Composition" in Tereasa Enos, ed. A Sourcebook for Basic Writing Teachers, p.208-215. New York: Random House, 1987.

  • Lees, Elaine. "Proofreading as Reading, Errors as Embarrassments." In Tereasa Enos, ed. A Sourcebook for Basic Writing Teachers, p. 216-230. New York: Random House, 1987.

  • Lindemann, Erika and Gary Tate, Eds. An Introduction to Compositon Studies. NY: Oxford UP, 1991.

  • Lunsford, Andrea A. "Politics and Practices in Basic Writing" in Theresa Enos, Ed. A Sourcebook for Basic Writing Teachers. New York: Random House, 1987.

  • MacDonald, Susan Peck. "Problem Definition in Academic Writing" College English 49 (March, 1987), 315-31.

  • McAlexander, Patricia J., Ann B. Dobie, and Noel Gregg. Beyond the "SP" Label: Improving the Spelling of Learning Disabled and Basic Writers. Urbana: NCTE, 1992.

  • Noguchi, Rei. Grammar and the Teaching of Writing. Urbana: NCTE, 1991.

  • Ong, Walter J. "Literacy and Orality in Our Times." In Tereasa Enos, ed. A Sourcebook for Basic Writing Teachers, p. 45-55. New York: Random House, 1987.

  • Perl, Sondra. "The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers." Research in the Teaching of English 13 (1979), 317-36; and in Enos, 1987.

  • Perl, Sondra. "A Look at Basic Writers in the Process of Composing." In Kasden and Hoeber, eds. Basic Writing p. 13-32. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 1980.

  • Ponsot, Marie and Rosemary Deen. Beat Not the Poor Desk: Writing--What to Teach, How to Teach it, and Why. Upper Montclair, NJ: Boynton/Cook, 1982.

  • Robinson, William S. "On Teachiang Organization: Patterns, Process and the Nature of Writing." Teaching English in the Two-Year College 21 (Oct. 1994), 191-98.

  • Robinson, William S. "ESL and Dialect Features in the Writing of Asian-American Students" Teaching English in the Two Year College 22 (Dec. 1995), 303-09.

  • Rose, Mike. Lives on the Boundary: The Struggles and Achievements of America's Underprepared. New York: The Free Press, 1989.

  • Rose, Mike. "Narrowing the Mind and Page: Remedial Writers and Cognitive Reductionism" College Composition and Communication 39 (Oct. 1988), 267-300. http://www.gen.umn.edu/research/cbw/annotations.html#rose *

  • Rose, Mike. "Remedial Writing Courses: A Critique and a Proposal" College English 45 (Feb. 1983), 109-28; and in Enos, 1987.

  • Shaughnessy, Mina P. Errors and Expectations: A Guide for the Teacher of Basic Writing. New York: Oxford UP, 1977.

  • Shor, Ira. Critical Teaching and Everyday Life. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1987.

  • Shor, Ira. Empowering Education. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1992.

  • Shor, Ira. Culture Wars: School & Society in the Conservative Restoration 1969-1984. New York: Routledge, 1986.

  • Strickland, Kathleen. Literacy, Not Labels. Boynton Cook, 1995.

  • Sweigart, William. "Assessing Achievement in a Developmental Writing Sequence." Research and Teaching in Developmental Education 12 (Spring1996): 5-15.

  • Trimmer, Joseph. "Basic Skills, Basic Writing, Basic Research." Journal of Basic Writing 6 (1987): 3-9.

  • Villanueva, Victor. Bootstraps: From an American Academic of Color. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 1993.

  • Villanueva, Victor. Ed. Cross-Talk in Comp Theory. Illinois: NCTE, 1997.

  • Weaver, Constance. Grammar in Context. Portsmouth: Boyton/Cook, 1996.

  • White, Edward. Teaching and Assessing Writing. San Francisco: Jossey, 1994.

  • White, Edward. "The Importance of Placement and Basic Studies: Helping Students Succeed Under the New Elitism" Journal of Basic Writing Fall 1995.

  • White, Edward. "Process Vs. Product: Assessing Skills in Writing." AAHE Bulletin, October 1988: 10-13.

  • Wiener, Harvey S. "Evaluating Assessment Programs on Basic Skills." Journal of Developmental Education 13 (Winter 1989): 24-26.

  • Wiener, Harvey S. "The Attack on Basic Writing--And After." Journal of Basic Writing (Spring 1998): 96-103.

  • Wilson Nelson, Marie. At the Point of Need: Teaching Basic and ESL Writers. (Heinemann, 1991)