Cover; Book Title; Copyright; Contents; Acknowledgments; Introduction: Relocating Basic Writing; 1. Locating First-Year Composition; 2. (Re)Defining Basic in Context; 3. Before 1960: The Rise of the Boneheads; 4. The "Awkward Squad" and Basic Writing at Yale; 5. Beyond English A: Harvard's Basic Writers and "Fatherly" Advice; 6. Looking Forward, Looking Back: Locating Basic Writing Today; Notes; Works Cited; Index; Series Statement; Card Page; Author Biography; Back Cover
In Before Shaughnessy: Basic Writing at Yale and Harvard, 1920-1960, Kelly Ritter uses materials from the archives at Harvard and Yale and contemporary theories of writing instruction to reconsider the definition of basic writing and basic writers within a socio-historical context. Ritter challenges the association of basic writing with only poorly funded institutions and poorly prepared students. Using Yale and Harvard as two sample case studies, Ritter shows that basic writing courses were alive and well, even in the Ivy League, in the early twentieth century. She argues not only that bas
Includes bibliographical references (p. 155-163) and index
