Reference Guides to Rhetoric and Composition
Series Editor, Charles Bazerman
The Series provides compact, comprehensive and convenient surveys of what has been learned through research and practice as composition has emerged as an academic discipline over the last half century. Each volume is devoted to a single topic that has been of interest in rhetoric and composition in recent years, to synthesize and make available the sum and parts of what has been learned on that topic. These reference guides are designed to help deepen classroom practice by making available the collective wisdom of the field and will provide the basis for new research. The Series is intended to be of use to teachers at all levels of education, researchers and scholars of writing, graduate students learning about the field, and all who have interest in or responsibility for writing programs and the teaching of writing.
Parlor Press and The WAC Clearinghouse are collaborating so that these books will be widely available through low-cost print editions and free digital distribution. The publishers and the Series editor are teachers and researchers of writing, committed to the principle that knowledge should freely circulate. We see the opportunities that new technologies have for further democratizing knowledge. And we see that to share the power of writing is to share the means for all to articulate their needs, interest, and learning into the great experiment of literacy.
Existing Books in the Series
Invention in Rhetoric and Composition (2004, Lauer)
Reference Guide to Writing across the Curriculum (2005, Bazerman, Little, Bethel, Chavkin, Fouquette, and Garufis)
Revision: History, Theory, and Practice (2006, Horning and Becker)
Writing Program Administration (2007, McLeod)
Community Literacy and the Rhetoric of Local Publics (2008, Long)
Argument in Composition (2009, Ramage, Callaway, Clary-Lemon, and Waggoner)
Basic Writing (2010, Otte and Mlynarczyk)
Genre: An Introduction to History, Theory, Research, and Pedagogy (2010, Bawarshi and Reiff)
Basic Writing
George Otte and Rebecca Williams Mlynarczyk
Parlor Press
West Lafayette, Indiana
www.parlorpress.com
The WAC Clearinghouse
http://wac.colostate.edu/
Parlor Press LLC, West Lafayette, Indiana 47906
© 2010 by Parlor Press and The WAC Clearinghouse
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
S A N: 2 5 4 - 8 8 7 9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Otte, George.
Basic writing / George Otte and Rebecca Williams Mlynarczyk.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60235-174-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-60235-175-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-60235-176-9 (adobe ebook) -- ISBN 978-1-60235-177-6 (epub ebook)
1. English language--Rhetoric. 2. English language--Grammar--Problems, exercises, etc. 3. Report writing. I. Mlynarczyk, Rebecca. II. Title.
PE1408.O77 2010
808’.042--dc22
2010008778
Series logo designed by Karl Stolley. Copyediting by Jessica Williams.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Parlor Press, LLC is an independent publisher of scholarly and trade titles in print and multimedia formats. This book is available in paperback, cloth, and Adobe eBook formats from Parlor Press on the World Wide Web at http://www.parlorpress.com. For submission information or to find out about Parlor Press publications, write to Parlor Press, 816 Robinson St., West Lafayette, Indiana, 47906, or e-mail [email protected].
The WAC Clearinghouse supports teachers of writing across the disciplines. Hosted by Colorado State University’s Composition Program, it brings together four journals, three book series, and resources for teachers who use writing in their courses. This book will also be available free on the Internet at The WAC Clearinghouse (http://wac.colostate.edu/).
Contents
2 Defining Basic Writing and Basic Writers
Basic Writing as a Fix-It Station
Basic Writing as a Back Formation of First-Year Composition
A Sense of Mission and Purpose
Adjustments and Revisions
Cognitivist Definitions
Contextual Definitions
Prescribing Without Defining
Initiation as a Goal
Problems with Initiation as a Goal
A Point of Crisis
The Vulnerability of Basic Writing
The Crisis as Reflected in the Journal of Basic Writing
Climate Change for Basic Writing
Responding to Calls to Eliminate Basic Writing
“Our Apartheid”
Context-Contingent Definitions
“Basic Writing at a Political Crossroads”
Capitulating on Definition
Error
Teaching Complication 1: The Need for Complexity