What Happens When Basic Writers Come to College?

Author(s): Patricia Bizzell

Source: College Composition and Communication , Oct., 1986, Vol. 37, No. 3 (Oct., 1986),
pp. 294-301
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/358046

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

National Council of Teachers of English is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and
extend access to College Composition and Communication

This content downloaded from

143.205.192.210 on Sat, 14 Oct 2023 08:29:36 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 What Happens When Basic Writers
Come to College?

Patricia Bizzell

I wish to propose an hypothesis for researching an answer to this question. For

the time being, let me suggest that "basic writers" are those who are least
well prepared for college. They may be defined in absolute terms, by features
of their writing, or in relative terms, by their placement in a given school's
freshman composition sequence, but, either way, their salient characteristic is
their "outlandishness"-their appearance to many teachers and to themselves
as the students who are most alien in the college community. Currently there
are three major ways to describe what happens to these outlanders when they
enter college. Each approach tends to focus on one element of basic writers'
complex experience. While each approach can give us a valuable partial view
of basic writers' experience, I am seeking a more comprehensive approach to
frame my research hypothesis.
One of these three current approaches says that basic writers entering col-
lege precipitate a clash among dialects. The basic writers are those students
who experience the greatest distance between their home dialects and Standard
English, the preferred dialect in school. These students feel that if only they
could learn to write "grammatically," their problems would be solved. Some
teachers agree, saying we should help-or require-these students to learn
Standard English. This solution is institutionalized in the composition course
requirements at most colleges. Once entangled in these requirements, howev-
er, basic writers may wish they could avoid the demands of Standard al-
together-after all, it's only a matter of how they're saying it, not what they
say, they feel. Scholars such as James Sledd have argued that the solution is to
stop demanding that all school work be conducted in Standard English, and to
give these students the option of either learning Standard English, if they so
desire, or writing and speaking in school in their home dialects.
We know that all dialects of English, whether Standard or non-Standard,
are capable of conveying complex thought. Given this consensus, students and

Patricia Bizzell, Associate Professor of English and Composition Advisor at the College of
the Holy Cross, served previously as director of the developmental writing program at Rutgers
University. She is co-compiler of the Bedford Bibliography for Teachers of Writing, and has pub-
lished essays on William Perry and on writing in the academic disciplines. She is co-editing an
anthology of major texts on rhetoric and composition from before Aristotle to the present day.

294 College Composition and Communication, Vol. 37, No. 3, October 1986

This content downloaded from

143.205.192.210 on Sat, 14 Oct 2023 08:29:36 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Basic Writers Come to College 295

teachers who wonder whether Standard E

that the issue is whether thoughts, howe
Standard or in some other dialect. In other
unchanged by the dialect in which they a
the Standard form often argue that althoug
their home dialects, unfortunately the la
form and therefore if we wish to enable th
them to use it. Defenders of home dialect
don dialects, even if only occasionally or
that students will learn very little while
lem. Hence James Britton, and his Amer
and C. H. Knoblauch, would provide man
pressive" speaking and writing in the st
ways of learning prior to, or perhaps ins
language using the Standard dialect.
A second approach says that basic writer
that they face a clash, not of dialects, but o
not mainly on features of language, such
features of texts, such as verbal devices u
ers discover that the ways of organizing inf
with which they are most familiar are not t
academe, as Mina Shaughnessy has observ
what Elaine Maimon calls the "genres" of
Bartholomae has shown, they will seek to sh
course conventions more familiar to them f
eras or grammar-school history lessons on
puzzled at the unenthusiastic reception affo
especially if they have managed to write the
To what extent are discourse conventions t
of writing? If they are surface features onl
ventions would be a matter of pouring thou
non and Knoblauch disparagingly call the
ventions actually generates thoughts that
conventions? If the conventions are seen as
sion of the debate over requiring Standar
quired to learn such conventional academic
erature survey, or be allowed to pursue the
with which they feel more comfortable, suc
quiring students to practice academic genr
necessary for success in college; advocates of
for success in college must change.
If, however, the discourse conventions are
ly conveying, certain kinds of complex th
work is not possible in different genres.

This content downloaded from

143.205.192.210 on Sat, 14 Oct 2023 08:29:36 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
296 College Composition and Communication

genre that generates personal connections with classwork,

religious revulsion for genetic research, but that discoura
thinking, such as surveying religiously-motivated resistan
search through the ages. According to this line of argume
peed to learn other, more "academic" genres in order to b
form more kinds of academic intellectual work. A corollary
that whereas many genres, like the many dialects of English,
ble of generating complex thoughts, they are not capable
same complex thoughts. Thus students will be thinking in
pending upon the dialect and discourse forms with which the
It is a short step, then, from seeing basic writers participat
discourse conventions to seeing them engaged in a clash of
Basic writers may begin to feel that their problem really
dumb for college, or that they just can't think the way the t
pecting that perhaps such students really are incapabl
thought, researchers such as Andrea Lunsford and Frank D'An
to cognitive psychology for models to understand basic write
velopment. In this third approach to understanding basic
the developmental schemes of Jean Piaget or William Perry
rank-order student writers, with basic writers placed at t
end of the scale. The teacher's task then becomes similar to
seeking ways to correct basic writers' cognitive dysfuncti
argue that to use psychological models in this way is to sti
ers and to ignore the cultural bases of differences in th
"Cognition, Convention, and Certainty").
I want to find an approach to the difficulties of basic wr
lege that can take into account these differences in dialects, d
tions, and ways of thinking. When students see their prob
dialect, they're apt to say, "It's just that I can't talk right!" If
the problem as difficulty shaping a paper-what I've called
familiarity with academic discourse conventions-they may
lem as having to do with writing at all. They may just c
know what the teacher wants." This kind of bewildermen
begin to see their problem as a thinking problem-as I'
view often leads to a radical loss of self-confidence. When teachers see stu-
dents' problems in only one of these ways-when they see it as only a dialect
problem, or only a thinking problem-they risk similarly narrow views of
basic writers' experience.
We can correct this excessively narrow focus through the notion of a lan-
guage community: that is, a community that coheres because of common
language-using practices. Perhaps all communities are in some sense language
communities, although social class or geographic proximity, for instance, may
also play a part in their cohesion. But the academic community is a communi-
ty united almost entirely by its language, I think; the academic community is
not coterminous with any social class, though it is more closely allied to some

This content downloaded from

143.205.192.210 on Sat, 14 Oct 2023 08:29:36 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Basic Writers Come to College 297

than to others. Like any other language co

uses a preferred dialect (so-called "Standa
discourse (academic discourse) that create
constitutes the community's world view.
alect, discourse conventions, and ways of
community, then we can no longer see d
mere conveyances of thoughts generated
guage. Rather, dialect and discourse gene
view.
It would not be correct, however, to say th
view is determined by its language, becau
view could not change as a result of inter
material world, and we know that such ch
pate in the community and its changes, h
language-using practices. Thus basic writ
community, are being asked to learn a ne
tions, but the outcome of such learning
view. Their difficulties, then, are best un
tial distance between their world-views and
haps also from the resistance to changing th
by this very distance.
To understand basic writers' problem in
questions: what world views do basic wr
new world view demanded in college? An
the world views they bring to college in ord
The first of these questions has not yet be
do not know much about the world views ba
graphic information, on race or income for
ry answer because there is no widely accept
ture to which world views could be linked.
world views help to explain the school diffi
in the research of Basil Bernstein in Englan
and Jean-Claude Passeron in France. We c
cause, unlike the European researchers, we
curely enough to be able to form hypothese
whether basic writers belong to this group.
gued that we should see basic writers as the
differences of world view become differenc
(see Ong, Farrell). Such analyses seek to
searchers call class differences, in that or
quently in certain social groups. The orality
tually flattens out class differences on beha
the variety of basic writers' cultural backgr
views arising from this variety are not taken
We will find it hard to assess the difficult

This content downloaded from

143.205.192.210 on Sat, 14 Oct 2023 08:29:36 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 298 College Composition and Communication

view until we know how different it is from basic writers'

Even though we cannot now say how great the differenc
do not know enough about basic writers' original world
"outlandishness" in college strongly suggests that the dif
that for them, to a much greater degree than for other stu
academic world view means becoming bicultural. We do
cult it is to become bicultural, although evidence exists
(see Fishman). If with great effort students can acquire
view without having to give up their original world vie
what benefits might motivate the effort, although there is
such benefits exist (see Patterson, Hoggart).
Perhaps we could get a better idea of what benefits are
acquiring the academic world view if we knew just what
think we do have a good start on an answer to the ques
view the college demands, in the developmental scheme
have argued elsewhere that this scheme is culture-
"William Perry and Liberal Education"). In other words
"intellectual and ethical development" that results from
American liberal arts college, not a genetically-determin
Furthermore, Perry happened to perform his research at Ha
long-standing and far-reaching influence in American
the world view Perry describes can be taken as hegemo
world-view toward which basic writers are urged, to a great
everywhere.
I do not wish to summarize Perry's entire scheme, partly because space is
limited and partly because, since we cannot assume that basic writers are com-
ing into the process from the same sort of cultural background as Perry's re-
search subjects, we have no reason to assume they will go through the same
stages on their way to the final developmental position. I will attempt, how-
ever, to summarize that final position as the one at which basic writers must
eventually arrive, if they are to succeed in college, however they get there.
Perry finds that the young men who have completed the process he de-
scribes see the world as a place in which there are no "Absolutes," no stan-
dards of right and wrong that hold good for all times and places. They feel
that anyone who still sees the world as governed by Absolutes is epis-
temologically provincial. The liberal arts college, instead of accepting such na-
ive dependence on Absolutes, requires the comparative study of ideas as the
only way to choose among competing standards, to arrive at an informed
judgment. Perry states that the essential component in the world view of the
"liberally educated man" is the willingness "to think about even his own
thoughts, to examine the way he orders his data and the assumptions he is
making, and to compare these with other thoughts that other men might
have" (39). The outcome of his deliberations is that he chooses to make "Com-
mitments" to certain ideas, projects, and people, Commitments which will
order his adult life.

This content downloaded from

143.205.192.210 on Sat, 14 Oct 2023 08:29:36 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Basic Writers Come to College 299

On what basis are these Commitments m

tent will be strongly influenced by the a
to college, to a particular religion, for ex
their form will be influenced by academi
on. Hence the adult Commitment to a rel
meaningfulness, through participation in
what is important, in a world which Perry
out intrinsic meaning. While Perry certa
liberal arts education is destructive of relig
will never be the same again-that after
demic world view, one cannot willfully re
Absolutes when one worships. The young
cess Perry describes see themselves as hav
bility of constructing meaning in their w
responsibility can only be accomplished t
groups, religious, political, and so on.
If Perry is right, then the academic wor
trol all of a student's experience. The stu
tance on all of his or her Commitments,
and to give allegiance only as a result of a
sense, the academic world view cannot co
view in which standards for commitmen
which a father is authorized to make his
if one's pre-college world view includes se
then one should certainly take one's fath
mining adult Commitments. But one can
sions unquestioningly, and yet weigh them
tant, in one's own decision-making proces
It seems, then, that biculturalism is likely
demic world view is one of the world vi
seeks to subsume other world views to w
giance. The privileged position of the acad
seem an even more domineering partner.
feel that they are being asked to abandon
powerful world views in favor of the aca
mer basic writer who has written of the
world view caused him, with its attendant e
It could be argued, however, that the h
associated with a social group of relatively
surviving if some who hold allegiance to i
the academic world view to wield power
able to argue for the preservation of the
world view, for example, by making per
istrators for bilingual education programs a
convince the larger society of these prog

This content downloaded from

143.205.192.210 on Sat, 14 Oct 2023 08:29:36 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
300 College Composition and Communication

these academically successful students from going on

own financial advantage, forgetting about their home
such aspirations are certainly legitimate, their pursuit w
ter preservation of the home language and world view.
According to Perry's understanding of the academic
tery of it is the preventative against simply self-serving
seeking to make Commitments, in Perry's sense, canno
because to make a Commitment is to connect with o
minded groups. To put it another way, the student se
ments comes to value his or her connections with like-m
because the student realizes that only through such co
ments be realized.
There is nothing in the Perry model to suggest that
make a Commitment to the like-minded group of his
munity. This student will probably have other groups fr
making Commitments, such as those associated with
But the Perry model does suggest an economy of Com
to sever connections with any group to which one m
Commitment and, moreover, a desire particularly to fost
preserve integrity-in both the senses of honor and of
vidual's life, such as to a religious faith, or to a home cul
the dominant one of the larger society. Thus, if we
grounds for hope that the student who masters the a
for that very reason wish to preserve his or her ties to t
and so to preserve its language and world view, whate
have occurred on the way to this mastery.
I would like to conclude by suggesting that we need a st
similar to that conducted by Perry-a series of intervi
mediate between their home cultures and the academ
on through their college educations. Perry's scheme c
developmental process such research would seek, altho
be careful not to assume that this test group will go
tions as Perry's Harvard students. Such a study would hel
two questions I raise above: we would get a better ide
basic writers bring to college, and we would hear what
about the cost of acquiring a new one. I suspect that
comparative, deliberative stance of the academic world
as Perry's more sheltered students do. The basic wri
their home communities' standards are not the only o
this more immediately and forcefully when they com
dents whose home world views are closer to the academ
ence the distance between their home dialects and Sta
debilitating unfamiliarity they feel with academic ways o
discourse. I also suspect that they will find the stakes for

This content downloaded from

143.205.192.210 on Sat, 14 Oct 2023 08:29:36 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Basic Writers Come to College 301

view higher than the stakes were for Per

ference between this world view and their
ers have more to lose in modifying their ea
cause of the hegemonic power of the aca
that they will also find its acquisition well

Bibliography

Bartholomae, David. "Inventing the University

York: Guilford Press, 1986.
Bernstein, Basil. Class, Codes, and Control, 1971;
Bizzell, Patricia. "Cognition, Convention, and C
Writing." Pre/Text, 3 (Fall, 1982), 213-244.

- . "William Perry and Liberal Education." C

447-454.
Bourdieu, Pierre, and Jean-Claude Passeron. Reprod
Beverly Hills, California: Sage, 1977.
Britton, James et al. The Development of Writing
tion 1975.
D'Angelo, Frank. "Literacy and Cognition: A De
Life: The Demandfor Reading and Writing, Ed. Ric
New York: Modern Language Association, 1983.
Farrell, Thomas J. "IQ and Standard English." Co
(December, 1983), 470-484.
Fishman, Joshua A. "Ethnocultural Dimensio
Biliteracy."Journal of Basic Writing, 3 (Fall/Winte
Hoggart, Richard. "The Importance of Literacy."
1980), 74-87.
Knoblauch, C. H. and Lil Brannon. "Writing as Learning through the Curriculum." College
English, 45 (September, 1983), 465-474.
Lunsford, Andrea. "The Content of Basic Writers' Essays." College Composition and Commu-
nication, 31 (October, 1980), 278-290.
Maimon, Elaine. "Maps and Genres." In Composition and Literature: Bridging the Gap. Ed.
Winifred Horner. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.
Ong, Walter J., S.J. Interfaces of the Word. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press,
1977.

Patterson, Orlando. "Language, Ethnicity, and Change." Journal of Basic Writing, 3 (Fall/
Winter, 1980), 62-73.
Perry, William. Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the College Years: A Scheme.
New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968.
Rodriguez, Richard. "The Achievement of Desire: Personal Reflection on Learning
'Basics."' College English, 40 (November, 1978), 239-254.
Shaughnessy, Mina. "Some Needed Research on Writing." College Composition and Commu-
nication, 28 (December, 1977), 317-320.
Sledd, James. "In Defense of the Students' Right." College English, 45 (November, 1983),
667-675.

This content downloaded from

143.205.192.210 on Sat, 14 Oct 2023 08:29:36 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms