When I opened the backdoor to let my dog out in the early morning recently, huge, thick white flakes greeted me, streaming down, blanketing our flower beds and the steep foothills behind our house. These March snows are beautiful and delicate; grass and other green shoots are visible under the snow, and crocuses are pushing through; even some daffodils are up here and there. It’s March, windy, almost spring in Boise and, I imagine, where you are, and time for a steaming cup of coffee. I have been asked to lead a “coffee chat” this month, and March seems like a good time for this kind of relaxed discussion. Some of us are feverishly getting ready for the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) and then attending the conference during March; some are on spring break this month, and some end one term and then gear up for another. It’s a time of transition and a chance to talk.
About me: I was the unofficial historian of the Conference on Basic Writing (CBW), a Special Interest Group of CCCC, until 2005 when I published a history of the first twenty-five years of CBW,
and I lived most of it. I have rarely missed a CCCC, and I always attend the CBW events and the annual workshop. I can attest to the cordiality of this group over so many years and the sense of doing important, real work together: every voice is welcome and heard , whether you are starting in the field or have been involved for years. Chuck Guilford, emeritus, started CBW and brought it with him to Boise State University when we were both hired in 1981, and I was the second Chair.
I have been teaching basic writing (BW) since 1976 when I started teaching writing at Mars Hill College, a small private college in western North Carolina. After four years there, I received a year-long National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Fellowship to study the teaching of reading and writing, led by W. Ross Winterowd; titled “Literature and Literacy,” this fellowship brought together eleven of us from around the country, and my personal research was on the composing process of basic writers. The fellowship helped land me a job at Boise State University where I have been teaching full-time since (twenty-six years now). The first half of my career I focused on BW heavily, once teaching six sections, but often three sections of BW plus two other writing courses. I have published two basic writing textbooks, Starting Out or Starting Over: A Guide for Writing (1993) and a companion reader, Vision and Revision: A Reader for Writers (1994), both now out of print, but cheap on eBay. I am interested in and delighted by older and younger adult students, an audience that Boise State has always served as an urban university.
As Boise State transitioned from teaching to research, my load was reduced, and my teaching focus broadened. Now I teach three courses per term, including a graduate class in the teaching of BW; my graduate students last term in that course expanded the BW CompFAQs wiki.
This semester I have a grad class on adult learners and writing/literacy instruction, a course I designed with the new Two-Year College English Association (TYCA) guidelines on preparing community college faculty in mind: “Guidelines for the Academic Preparation of Two-Year College English Faculty”. Over the years, I have taught a range of writing courses as well as twentieth century nonfiction literature.
So what would you like to talk about? Teaching or publishing, the past, the present, the future? We can talk about anything on your mind about BW. For one thing, I will be at the CCCC in NYC and I will be your “reporter on the spot”: I will send back reports on BW, especially on the CBW workshop and on other BW sessions I get to, BW people I see, news and FYI, etc.
So we could talk about the enduring issues, like grammar and language, full text writing, reading, invention and revision, ESL connections, technology, and issues of race, class and gender, and many more. We could talk about literacy narratives—good ones to read, good ones to assign, excerpts to use; about textbooks, professional books, and journals, and where and how to publish, especially if you're just getting started.
[My previous TBW module focused on grammar and language].
We could talk about the past: What do you want to know about the history of CBW or about BW history in general? I have focused current research efforts on documenting BW history, both organizational and institutional. In addition to my history of CBW at 25 (mentioned earlier), I wrote a CBW history with a different focus in 2001. I have a lot more information than could be published. I have also spent time on institutional history, having recently completed a history of basic writing instruction at my institution where I looked at Boise State’s development from a community college into a community university [“From Community College to Urban University: Beginning Writing Instruction for Diverse Students at Boise State University." Basic Writing in America: The History of Nine College Programs Eds. Nicole Greene and Patricia McAlexander; Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, in press]. Others I know are working on their institutional histories as well. A related institutional project is my piece on how Boise State developed our mission statement, reproduced in Susan Bernstein’s new edition of Teaching Developmental Writing [“Creating a Statement of Guidelines and Goals for Boise State University’s Basic Writing Course: Content and Development.” Teaching Developmental Writing Ed. Susan Naomi Bernstein. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2007. 27-38].
We could talk about the present: What’s happening just now in basic writing that’s important and interesting? As you plan for the CCCC, what are some “must see” sessions? What's current in terms of reading? I just received (in late February) a new volume of the Journal of Basic Writing (JBW) (25.2), thick with fascinating-sounding essays on the basic writer's identity, public policy, graduate education, curriculum, literacy, and multilingual learners. And there was also a new issue of Bwe: Basic Writing e-Journal last month, rich with material. Another current topic is credit for BW. There was a lively discussion recently on CBW-L about credit. Many institutions (mine included) do not give credit for basic writing but many (most?) in the field feel BW should be a credit course. My graduate students looked into this issue and posted some interesting research on the CompFAQs wiki, and Linda Adler-Kassner suggested that CBW sponsor a resolution in support of credit. And while I'm on the wiki, we could talk about what the CompFAQs wiki is and how to use and add to it.
We could talk about the future: Where is basic writing headed on this 30th anniversary year of the publication of Mina Shaughnessy’s Errors and Expectations? There was talk at last year’s CCCC about how CBW is set to become more of a player at CCCC, and that we will improve our status and influence by focusing on first quality graduate programs to prepare BW faculty who are also knowledgeable about nontraditional adult students and adult literacy issues; such students will become the next generation of community college instructors. This is certainly a goal of mine. There appear to be a number of openings for tenure track jobs with benefits at community colleges this year for prepared faculty. I know many are committed to this issue, particularly Barbara Gleason, Director of the MA in Language and Literacy at the City College of New York, CUNY [click on programs, graduate, language and literacy]. This is the MA program that Mina Shaughnessy started and Marilyn Sternglass temporarily revived. In the new JBW (25.2, mentioned earlier), Gleason argues that "there is a pressing need for highly qualified teachers of nontraditional adult students, especially in community college and adult literacy education programs" and that graduate programs should expand efforts to prepare "graduate students to teach, research, and administer programs for nontraditional adult students by regularly offering courses on basic writing theory, research, and pedagogy" ["Reasoning the Need: Graduate Education and Basic Writing" 49].
So in this beautiful in between time of March, between the howling lion that comes in and the soft lamb that goes out, I am open for business: Uehling Cappuccino and Writing Virtual Café. (In my non-virtual existence, I love espresso shops and work all the time at Boise coffee houses; give me a hot cappuccino, a laptop, and a good book--and I'm happy.) So please pull up a chair at my table. Pour yourself a cup of your favorite beverage, and let’s talk.
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