College Composition and Communication, Vol. 60, No. 1, September 2008

Click here to view the individual articles in this issue at http://www.ncte.org/cccc/ccc/issues/v60-1

Ritter, Kelly. “Before Mina Shaughnessy: Basic Writing at Yale, 1920-1960.” CCC 60.1 (2008): 12-45.

Abstract:

This article examines Yale’s “Awkward Squad” of basic writers between 1920 and 1960. Using archival materials that illustrate the socioeconomic conditions of this early, “pre-Shaughnessy” site of remedial writing instruction, I argue for a re-definition of basic in composition studies using local, institutional values rather than generic standards of correctness applied uniformly to all colleges and universities.

Keywords:

ccc60.1

Works Cited

Armstrong, Cherryl. “Reexamining Basic Writing: Lessons from Harvard’s Basic Writers.” Journal of Basic Writing 7 (1988): 68-80.

Bailey, J. O. “Harvard, Yale, Princeton Required English.” South Atlantic Bulletin 11.4 (Feb. 1946): 6-8.

Bartholomae, David. “The Tidy House: Basic Writing in the American Curriculum.” Journal of Basic Writing 12.1 (1993): 4-22.

Berlin, James. Rhetoric and Reality: Writing Instruction in American Colleges, 1900-1985. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1987.

Bloom, Lynn Z. “Freshman Composition as a Middle-Class Enterprise.” College English 58.6 (Oct. 1996): 654-75.

Brereton, John. The Origins of Composition Studies in the American College, 1875-1925. Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh P, 1995.

Cox, Martha H., John W. Canario, and James R. Cypher. “Remedial English: A Nation-Wide Survey.” College Composition and Communication 11.4 (Dec. 1960): 237-44.

DeGenaro, William. “Why Basic Writing Professionals on Regional Campuses Need to Know Their Histories.” Open Words: Access and English Studies 1.1 (Fall 2006): 54-68.

Delcamp, E. W. “The Value of PostGraduate Study.” Classical Journal 23.6 (March 1928): 448-55.

Devane, William. “The New Program at Yale College.” Journal of Higher Education 18.4 (April 1947): 189-93.

Eble, Kenneth E. “What Happened to the Boneheads?” News Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association 13.4 (Aug. 1960): 1-3.

Fountain, Alvin M. “The Problem of the Poorly Prepared Student.” College English 1.4 (Jan. 1940): 309-22.

Fox, Tom. Defending Access: A Critique of Standards in Higher Education. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1999.

French, J. Milton. “The New Curriculum of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.” College English 8.2 (Nov. 1946): 73-82.

Gordon, Joseph W., and Linda H. Peterson. “Writing at Yale: Past and Present.” ADE Bulletin 71 (Spring 1982): 10-14.

Gunner, Jeanne. “Iconic Discourse: The Troubling Legacy of Mina Shaughnessy.” Journal of Basic Writing 17.2 (1998): 25-43.

“Has English Zero Seen Its Day? A Symposium.” College Composition and Communication 8.2 (May 1957): 72-95.

Hemingway, S. B. Memo to Provost Charles Seymour, 12 Oct. 1936. Yale University Archives. New Haven, CT.

“History of the Regiment-Glossary of Indian Wars Slang.” 10 July 2006 .

Jensen, George H. “The Reification of the Basic Writer.” Journal of Basic Writing 5.1 (1986): 52-64.

Johnson, Paula. “Freshman English in the Ivy League.” Freshman English News 5.3 (1977): 14-18.

—. “The Politics of ‘Back to Basics.'” ADE Bulletin 053 (May 1977): 1-4.

Johnson, Paula, and Judith D. Hackman. “The Yale Average; or, After Competence, What?” College Composition and Communication 28.3 (1977): 227-31.

Karabel, Jerome. The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2005.

Kitzhaber, Albert R. “Syllabus for English 01, Washington State University, 19461947.” 1 March 2007 .

Lerner, Neal. “Rejecting the Remedial Brand: The Rise and Fall of the Dartmouth Writing Clinic.” College Composition and Communication 59.1 (Sept. 2007): 13-35.

Levine, David O. The American College and the Culture of Aspiration, 1915-1940. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1986.

Lunsford, Andrea. “An Historical, Descriptive, and Evaluative Study of Remedial English in American Colleges and Universities. ” Diss. Ohio State University, 1977.

McHale, Kathryn. “Changes in the Colleges.” Journal of Higher Education 2.6 (June 1931): 289-94.

Mutnick, Deborah. Writing in an Alien World Basic Writing and the Struggle for Equality in Higher Education. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton Cook, 1995.

Nettleton, George H. “English at Yale.” Yale Alumni Weekly. 1924. 1061-1063.

—. “Report of the English Department, Yale University, 1929-30.” June 18, 1930. Yale University Archives, New Haven, CT.

Nibecker, F. H. “Education of Juvenile Delinquents.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 189 (Jan. 1937): 22-28.

Pierson, George W. Yale: The University College, 1921-1937. New Haven, CT: Yale UP, 1955.

—. Yale College: An Educational History 1871-1921. New Haven, CT: Yale UP, 1952.

Probert Encyclopaedia of Slang. “Awkward Squad.” 2 July 2006 .

Rose, Mike. “The Language of Exclusion: Writing Instruction at the University.” College English 47.4 (1985): 341-59.

—. “Remedial Writing Courses: A Critique and a Proposal.” College English 45 (Feb. 1983): 109-28.

Ross, Edward Alsworth. “The Diseases of Social Structures.” American Journal of Sociology 24.2 (Sept. 1918): 139-58.

Russell, David. Writing in the Academic Disciplines: A Curricular History. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1991.

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

Sheridan-Rabideau, Mary, and Gordon Brossell. “Finding Basic Writing’s Place.” Journal of Basic Writing 14.1 (1995): 21-26.

Shor, Ira. “Errors and Economics: Inequality Breeds Remediation.” Mainstreaming Basic Writers. Ed. Gerry McNenny. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2001. 29-54.

Soliday, Mary. The Politics of Remediation. Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh P, 2003.

Sommers, Nancy. Shaped by Writing: The Undergraduate Experience. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 2002.

Sparling, Edward J. “Improving the Status of the Composition Teacher.” College Composition and Communication 8.2 (May 1957): 67-72.

Stygall, Gail. “Politics and Proof in Basic Writing.” Journal of Basic Writing 7.2 (1988): 28-41.

Towle, Carroll S. “The Awkward Squad at Yale.” English Journal 18.8 (1929): 672-677.

Williams, Joseph. Letter to the Editor. ADE 46 (Sept. 1975). .

Williams, Stanley T. Memo to Provost Ed Furniss. 22 Jan. 1942. Yale University Archives, New Haven, CT.

Wozniak, John. English Composition in Eastern Colleges, 1850-1940. Washington, DC: UP of America, 1978.

Yale Freshman Committee. “Syllabus for Basic English: Army Specialized Tutoring Program.” 10 May 1943. Yale University Archives, New Haven, CT.

“Yale Undergraduate Courses of Study.” 1919-1951. Yale University Archives, New Haven, CT.

Yale University. Annual Report of the Department of English to the President, 1958-1959, by Chairman Louis L. Martz. Records of Alfred Whitney Griswold, RU-22, Box 81, Folder 722. Yale University Archives.

—. Yale Freshman Committee. “Syllabus for Basic English: Army Specialized Tutoring Program.” 10 May 1943. YRG 3-A, Box 21, Folder 216. Yale University Archives.

Lamos, Steve. “Literacy Crisis and Color-Blindness: The Problematic Racial Dynamics of Mid-1970s Language and Literacy Instruction for ‘High-Risk’ Minority Students.” CCC 60.1 (2008): 46-81.

Abstract:

This article argues that mid-1970s discourses of literacy crisis prompted a problematic shift toward color-blind ideologies of language and literacy within both disciplinary and institutional discussions of writing instruction for “high-risk” minority students. It further argues that this shift has continuing import for contemporary antiracist writing instruction.

Works Cited

Bartholomae, David. “The Study of Error.” CCC 31.3 (1980): 253-77.

Beissel, George F. “Comment on James Sledd.” College English 34.4 (1973): 582-83.

Chair of Senate Committee on Student English (SCSE). “(Draft) Report and Tentative Plans: Writing Laboratory/Clinic.” Feb. 1969. Record Series 9/5/33, Box 1, Univ. of Illinois Archives, Urbana, IL.

“Comments on the Qualifying Examination.” 22 Feb. 1967. Record Series 9/5/33, Box 1, Univ. of Illinois Archives, Urbana, IL.

Conference on College Composition and Communication. “Committee on CCCC Language: Background Statement.” CCC 25.3 (1974) (Students’ Right to Their Own Language Special Issue): 1-18.

Daniels, Harvey. “What’s New with the SAT?” English Journal 63.6 (1974): 11-12.

Dean A (Dean of the Educational Opportunity Program during 1969-1970). “The Role of English in the College Education of Minorities: A Crown Don’t Make No King.” Conference on College Composition and Communication. Miami, Florida. 17 Apr. 1969.

Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Letter to Head of the English Department. 25 May 1971. Univ. of Illinois English Dept. Archives, Urbana, IL.

—. Letter to Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs. 21 Oct. 1974. Univ. of Illinois English Dept. Archives, Urbana, IL.

DeGenaro, William. “Why Basic Writing Professionals on Regional Campuses Need to Know Their Histories.” Open Words: Access and English Studies 1.1 (2006): 54-68.

Director B (Director of EOP Rhetoric during 1972-1975). Memo to the Head of the English Department. 17 October 1974. Univ. of Illinois English Dept. Archives, Urbana, IL.

—. “Proposal for Change in the Rhetoric Placement Policy at the Lower Level.” January 1974. Univ. of Illinois English Dept. Archives, Urbana, IL.

Director C (Director of EOP Rhetoric during 1975-1977). “The Directive: Rhetoric 103.” Program Description. 1976. Univ. of Illinois English Dept. Archives, Urbana, IL.

—. Letter to Director of the EEL. 6 Oct. 1975. Univ. of Illinois English Dept. Archives, Urbana, IL.

—. “To the Rhetoric Teaching Staff.” 1975. Univ. of Illinois English Dept. Archives, Urbana, IL.

Director of the EEL. Memo to “Administrators, Faculty and Students Re: The Expanded Encounter with Learning.” n.d. Univ. of Illinois English Dept. Archives, Urbana, IL.

—. Memo to Director B. 15 Oct.1974. Univ. of Illinois English Dept. Archives, Urbana, IL.

“The Educational Opportunities Program: A Report on Its Objectives, Problems, and Accomplishments.” Program Report. 20 Dec. 1974. Record Series 41/1/30, Box 3, Univ. of Illinois Archives, Urbana, IL.

“EEL Use of Writing Laboratory.” 1972. Record Series 41/1/30, Box 3, Univ. of Illinois Archives, Urbana, IL.

Egerton, John. Higher Education for “High Risk” Students. Atlanta: Southern Education Found., 1968.

“The Expanded Encounter with Learning Program.” 1971. Record Series 41/1/30, Box 1, Univ. of Illinois Archives, Urbana, IL.

Fox, Tom. Defending Access: A Critique of Standards in Higher Education. Portsmouth: Boynton/Cook, 1999.

Genovese, Michael A. The Nixon Presidency: Power and Politics in Turbulent Times. New York: Greenwood, 1990.

Gleason, Barbara. “Remediation Phase-Out at CUNY: The ‘Equity versus Excellence’ Controversy.” CCC 51.3 (2000): 488-91.

Greene, Nicole Pepinster, and Patricia J. McAlexander. Basic Writing in America: The History of Nine College Programs. Cresskill: Hampton, 2008.

Haswell, Richard. “NCTE/CCCC’s Recent War on Scholarship.” Written Communication 22.2 (2005): 198-223.

Kochman, Thomas. “Social Factors in the Consideration of Teaching Standard English.” Florida FL Reporter 7.1 (1969): 87-88, 157.

Lamos, Steve. “Language, Literacy, and the Institutional Dynamics of Racism: Late- 1960s Writing Instruction for ‘High- Risk’ African American Undergraduate Students at One Predominantly-White University.” CCC 60.1 (2008): 46-81.

Lloyd-Jones, Richard. “A View from the Center.” CCC 29.1 (1978): 24-29.

Lu, Min-Zhan. “Importing ‘Science’: Neutralizing Basic Writing” In Representing the ‘Other’: Basic Writers and the Teaching of Basic Writing. Eds. Bruce Horner and Min-Zhan Lu. Urbana: NCTE, 1999. 56-104.

Lunsford, Andrea. “Cognitive Development and the Basic Writer.” College English 41.1 (1979): 38-46.

MacDonald, Susan Peck. “The Erasure of Language.” CCC 58.4 (2007): 585-625.

McDaniel, Reuben R., and James W. McKee. An Evaluation of Higher Education’s Response to Black Students. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1971.

“Notes on Meeting with Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences.” 17 Oct. 1974. Univ. of Illinois English Dept. Archives, Urbana, IL.

Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 1994.

O’Neill, Wayne. “The Politics of Bidialecticalism.” College English 33.4 (1972): 433-38.

Perl, Sondra. “The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers.” Research in the Teaching of English 13.4 (1979): 317-36.

Senate Committee on Student English. Minutes. 15 Sept. 1969. Record Series 9/5/33, Box 1, Univ. of Illinois Archives, Urbana, IL.

Shaughnessy, Mina. Errors and Expectations. New York: Oxford UP, 1977.

—. “Open Admissions and the Disadvantaged Teacher.” CCC 24.5 (1973): 401-04.

Sheils, Merrill. “Why Johnny Can’t Write.” Newsweek 9 Dec. 1975: 58-65.

Shor, Ira. Culture Wars: School and Society in the Age of Conservative Restoration. London: U of Chicago P, 1986.

Sledd, James. “Doublespeak: Dialectology in the Service of Big Brother.” College English 33.4 (1972): 439-56.

Smitherman, Geneva. “God Don’t Never Change: Black English from a Black Perspective.” College English 34.6 (1973): 828-33.

—. “Soul ‘N Style.” English Journal 63.4 (1974): 16-17.

—. Talkin’ and Testifyin’: The Language of Black America. Boston: Houghton, 1977.

Soliday, Mary. The Politics of Remediation: Institutional and Student Needs in Higher Education. Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh P, 2002.

Trimbur, John. “Literacy and the Discourse of Crisis.” The Politics of Writing Instruction: Postsecondary. Eds. Richard Bullock, John Trimbur, and Charles Schuster. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 1991. 277-95.

Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs. Letter to Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences. 22 Jan. 1975. Univ. of Illinois English Dept. Archives, Urbana, IL.

Wible, Scott. “Pedagogies of the ‘Students’ Right Era’: The Language Curriculum Research Group’s Project for Linguistic Diversity.” CCC 57.3 (2006): 442-78.

Wiener, Harvey. “Questions on Basic Skills for the Writing Teacher.” CCC 28.4 (1977): 321-24.

Williamson, Joy Ann. Black Power on Campus: The University of Illinois, 1965-1975. Urbana: UIUC P, 2003.

Writing Lab Staff Member. Memo to Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Department of English. 1 Oct. 1974. Univ. of Illinois English Dept. Archives, Urbana, IL.

Trainor, Jennifer Seibel. “The Emotioned Power of Racism: An Ethnographic Portrait of an All-White High School.” CCC 60.1 (2008): 82-112.

Abstract

This article explores the emotioned dimensions of racist discourses at an all-white public high school. I argue that students’ racist assertions do not always or even often originate in students’ racist attitudes or belief. Instead, racist language functions metaphorically, connecting common racist ideas to nonracist feelings, values, beliefs, and associations that are learned in the routine practices and culture of school.

Works Cited

Abu-Lughod, L., and C. Lutz. Language and the Politics of Emotion. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1990.

Anderson, Virginia. “Confrontational Teaching and Rhetorical Practice.” College Composition and Communication 48.2 (May 1997): 197-214.

—. “Property Rights: Exclusion as Moral Action in ‘The Battle of Texas.'” College English 62.4 (March 2000): 445-72.

Banning, Marlia E. “The Politics of Resentment.” JAC 26.1/2 (2006): 67-101.

Boler, Megan. Feeling Power: Emotions and Education. London: Routledge, 1999.

Britzman, Deborah. Novel Education: Psychoanalytic Studies of Learning and Not Learning. New York: Peter Lang, 2006.

Burke, Kenneth. A Rhetoric of Motives. Berkeley: U of California P, 1950.

Cintron, Ralph. Angels’ Town: Chero Ways, Gang Life, and Rhetorics of the Everyday. Boston: Beacon, 1998.

Crowley, Sharon. Toward a Civil Discourse: Rhetoric and Fundamentalism. Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh P, 2006.

Cvetkovich, A. An Archive of Feelings: Trauma, Sexuality, and Lesbian Public Cultures. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2003.

Daniell, B. A Communion of Friendship: Literacy, Spiritual Practice, and Women in Recovery. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 2003.

DeVoss, Daneille Nicole, Ellen Cushman, and Jeffrey T. Grabill. “Infrastructure and Composing: The When of New-Media Writing.” College Composition and Communication 57.1 (Sept. 2005): 14-44.

Gere, Anne Ruggles. “Kitchen Tables and Rented Rooms: The Extracurriculum of Composition.” College Composition and Communication 45.1 (Feb. 1994): 75-92.

Gorzelsky, Gwen. The Language of Experience: Literate Practices and Social Change. Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh P, 2005.

Gross, Daniel. The Secret History of Emotion: From Aristotle’s Rhetoric to Modern Brain Science. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2006.

Jacobs, Dale, and Laura Micciche. A Way to Move: Rhetorics of Emotion and Composition Studies. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 2003.

Kates, Susan. “Literacy, Voting Rights, and the Citizenship: Schools in the South, 1957-1970.” College Composition and Communication 57.3 (Feb. 2006): 479-502.

Kennedy, Tammie, Joyce Middleton, Krista Ratcliffe, Kathleen Ethel Welch, Catherine Prendergast, Ira Shor, Thomas R. West, Ellen Cushman, Michelle Kendrick, and Lisa Albrecht. “Symposium: Whiteness Studies. Rhetoric Review 24.4 (Jan. 2005): 359-402.

Lewis, Amanda. Race in the Schoolyard: Negotiating the Color Line in Classrooms and Communities. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 2004.

Lindquist, Julie. “Class Affects, Classroom Affectations: Working through the Paradoxes of Strategic Empathy.” College English 67.2 (Nov. 2004): 187-209.

—. A Place to Stand: Politics and Persuasion in a Working-Class Bar. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2002.

McIntosh, Peggy. “White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences through Work in Women’s Studies.” Race, Class, and Gender: An Anthology. Ed. M. L. Anderson and P. H. Collins. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. 1992. 70-81.

Prendergast, C. Literacy and Racial Justice: The Politics of Learning after Brown v. Board of Education. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 2003.

Quandahl, Ellen. “A Feeling for Aristotle: Emotion in the Sphere of Ethics.” Jacobs and Micciche 11-22.

Ratcliffe, Krista. Rhetorical Listening: Identification, Gender, Whiteness. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 2005.

Schugurensky, Daniel. “The Eight Curricula of Multicultural Citizenship Education.” Multicultural Education 10.1 (Fall 2002): 2-6.

Strickland, Donna, and Ilene Crawford. “Error and Racialized Performances of Emotion in the Teaching of Writing.” Jacobs and Micciche 67-79.

Worsham, Lynn. “Moving beyond a Sentimental Education.” Jacobs and Micciche 161-63.

Zembylas, Michalinos. “Discursive Practices, Genealogies, and Emotional Rules: A Poststructuralist View on Emotion and Identity in Teaching.” Teaching and Teacher Education 21 (2005): 935-48.