Mina shaughnessy errors and expectations pdf

With support from the office of academic affairs of the city university of new york, the jbw is published twice a year. Shaughnessy background oward the end of the sixties and largely in response to the protests of that decade, many fouryear colleges began admitting students who were not by traditional standards ready for college. At the time of her death from cancer in 1978, mina shaughnessy was considered the leading figure in the field of basic writing. Shaughnessy worked hard not only to design a curriculum for students that seemed alien to the. She sections off her book into what she sees as the main problems basic writers have. In the preface to errors and expectations, mina shaughnessy thanked. Shaughnessy this is the introduction to mina shaughnessys book entitled errors and expectations. Shaugnessys study reified the pedagogy and, by extension, the politics of the basic writing classroom, as well as how the basic writer is classified. The imperative for educational reform, which contributes to the sense that schools are failing and initiates local, state, and federal educational reform. The history, meaning, and understanding of ethnic succession at city collegeboth its faculty and studentseach group with differing educational, social, and cultural needs, is.

A guide for the teacher of basic writing, published in 1977 by oxford university press, by mina p. Mina shaughnessy, errors and expectations 1977 kay halasek, pedagogy of possibility. I, too, must thank marilyn for providing information. In her book, errors and expectations, mina shaughnessy wrote, the teacher must try to decipher the individual students code, examining samples of his writing as a scientist might, searching for patterns or explanations, listening. The basic skills needed for proficient college writing that mina shaughnessy discusses in her 1977 book, errors and expectations, including handwriting, punctuation, and spelling, are still recognized today by experts henry jenkins and the carnegie corporation as essential. Shaughnessy, was the first booklength investigation of writing problems experienced by underprepared college freshmen. No rereading of mina shaughnessys errors and expectations can occur in a neutral field without this landscape of place. Robert lyons, describing the genesis of mina shaughnessy s errors and expectations, has termed the most contentious issue in higher education in new york. There was an influx of college students in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in response to the protests of that time. Available as a pdf on the course group site stephen brier, wheres the pedagogy. The fact that graduate schools, aware that their students would spend a good part of their professional lives teaching freshman english, made no.

While mina shaughnessys errors and expectations is frequently cited and regarded as a central text in basic writing scholarship. Interactive media professors stephen brier and ximena gallardo itcp 70010. These two books continue to have a profound effect on me, clearly visible in my work for the ten years after i read them and still strongly present today. Engaging the introduction to mina shaughnessys errors and. Robert lyons, describing the genesis of mina shaughnessys errors and expectations, has termed the most contentious issue in higher education in new york. For example, he suggests that teachers who cannot understand student prose do not read the prose as complex texts and thus do not find the logic at work in many errors. Avaliable format in pdf, epub, mobi, kindle, ebook and audiobook. A guide for the teacher of basic writing oxford university press paperback book by mina p. Thus, despite citing jeanne gunners critique of the treatment of shaughnessy as iconic teacher figure iconic discourse. Our decades ago mina shaughnessy wrote her now classic errors and expectations, forcing composi tion instructors all over the nation to rethink their approach to basic writing. The fact that graduate schools, aware that their students would spend a good part of their professional lives teaching freshman english, made no effort to train. But criticism of errors was muted until minzhan lu charged in 1991 that shaughnessy had propagated an essentialist view of language. In the preface to errors and expectations, mina shaughnessy thanked marilyn maiz, her assistant, first at city college and later at the instructional resource center, for having been her companion from start to finish, and for giving honest and informed criticism of each chapter viii.

I was surprised to see how much of what shaughnessy was saying about basic writing bw students was still relevant 35 years laterminus more of the current. I was surprised to see how much of what shaughnessy was saying about. Improving student writing challenges and expectations writing is complex, and so is the instruction that a school must. Students taking the rhetoric and composition exam must select an additional 20 texts to complete the reading list for the exam. Mina shaughnessy was amongst the first people at the city university of new york to bring attention to the need for basic writing courses within the university level. Diversity, equity, and the ideology of writing across the curriculum. I was surprised to see how much of what shaughnessy was saying about basic writing bw students was still relevant 35 years laterminus more of the currenttraditionally focused stuff on spelling and vocabulary. Errors and expectations is one of those books that i feel like i know really well. Shaughnessy pronounced myna shawnesee, involved with the seek program at cuny, was a proponent of open admissions for city college part of the cuny system and became director of the bw program once city college opened its doors to all. An investigation into punctuation and capitalization errors made by hebron university efl students article pdf available december 2016 with 7,405 reads how we measure reads. It finds shaughnessy s analyses and recommended pedagogies. Engaging the introduction to mina shaughnessys errors. Sentence level control slips more as writers attempt harder intellectual and rhetorical moves ncte beliefs about teaching writing.

But writing is a skill that involves a highly self. Doing what effective tutors do in a large lecture class. Available as a pdf on the course group site paolo freire, pedagogy of the oppressed. She observed that as student writers develop and arechallenged with ever more difficult writing tasks, the number of mechanical errors and defects in. Basic writing, a contested term, refers to the field concerned with teaching writing to students not yet deemed ready for firstyear composition. Errors and expectations is one of those books that i feel like i know really well because its so strongly situated in the field but had never read past the introduction. A guide for the teacher of basic writing by mina shaughnessy.

The shaughnessy scholars programdistilling ideas from. Elsewhere he observes that the distinguishing mark of the. Errors and expectations is not without its faults, as readers of both. Available as a pdf on the course group site october 21. In her groundbreaking book errors and expectations 1977, mina shaughnessy says that basic writing tends to be represented by small numbers of words with large numbers of errors. The journal of basic writing is a refereed journal founded in 1975 by mina shaughnessy and is published twice a year with support from the office of academic affairs of the city university of new york. The history, meaning, and understanding of ethnic succession at city collegeboth its faculty and studentseach group with differing educational, social, and cultural needs, is missing from lus analy sis.

Her work was the kind of work you would do if you were really going to take democracy seriously. Errors and expectations in writing across the curriculum. But writing is a skill that involves a highly selfconscious. Shaughnessy also served as the first editor of the journal. Available as a pdf on the course group site paolo freire. Mina pendo shaughnessy seemed to be the quintessential new.

Group presentations often a student begins to write his essay before he has arrived at what might be called a starting idea so that his essay, rather than being the development of an idea, is the record of an idea developing 234. In contrast, david bartholomae argues that a basic writer is not necessarily a writer who makes a lot of mistakes inventing the university, 1985. Essentially what shaughnessy does in this book is to bring new critical closereading skills to bear on the most impenetrable and errorridden prose of struggling college writers, and in so doing, she makes sense of it thusly. Bakhtinian perspectives on composition studies 1999 student selected texts. Thus, shaughnessy decided to write errors and expectations, hoping it would help guide professors faced with the task of engaging basic writers. Shaughnessy i 9241978 cre ated the term basic writing to describe inexperienced writers as underprepared students. The house that mina built mina shaughnessy began her city college career in 1967 as she began most things. Jun 30, 2010 thus, shaughnessy decided to write errors and expectations, hoping it would help guide professors faced with the task of engaging basic writers. Coinciding with their essay writing, the group presentations on transition sentences and writing the conclusion are further opportunities for students to become skilled at the subject by teaching the subject. Shaughnessy background oward the end of the sixties and largely in response to the protests of that decade, many fouryear colleges began admitting students. Basic writing definition and examples in composition studies.

Improving student writing chapter one challenges and. This book is divided into sections of difficulty such as, handwriting and punctuation, syntax, common errors, spelling, vocabulary. This is the introduction to mina shaughnessys book entitled errors and expectations. A guide for the teacher of basic writing edition 1. See other formats document resume ed 331 092 cs 212 809 author title pub date note pub type edrs price descriptors identifiers maimon, elaine p. Teaching students to think in the digital environment. Mina shaughnessy publishes errors and expectations. This article examines mina shaughnessy s errors and expectations in light of current discourse theories which posit language as a site of struggle among competing discourses. This article examines mina shaughnessys errors and expectations in light of current discourse theories which posit language as. Stephen north of mina shaughnessys errors and expectations and the field of. A guide for the teacher of basic writing oxford university press paperback 9780195025071.

Along with the basics, however, there are new technological skills. Handwriting and punctuation, syntax, common errors, spelling, vocabulary, and beyond the sentence4. History, theory, and practice of interactive media professors stephen brier and ximena gallardo itcp 70010. Minzhan lu redefining the legacy of mina shaughnessy. Adjusting the focus a bit, bartholomae extends mina shaughnessy s hope that teachers, especially basic writing teachers, will examine how they view errors in student writing. Responding to student writing from teaching composition, pp. Jan 06, 1977 errors and expectations is not without its faults, as readers of both representing the other and teaching developmental writing can attest, both it provides a solid touchstone for teachers and those interested in the pedagogy to build their knowledge from. In errors and expectations mina sha ghness points o t this contradiction the fact that grad ate shaughnessy points out this contradiction. This article historicizes recent reassessments by minzhan lu and. Wacwid, digital pedagogy, and the cuny context readings drawn from. Errors, expectations, and the legacy of mina shaughnessy. Pdf an investigation into punctuation and capitalization.