Implications and Lingering Questions

Abstract

In his history of first-year (FY) writing instruction, James Berlin writes that as higher education began to expand, it privileged a “certain version” of English, imposing lasting standards that are “clearly dialectal biases of a particular class” (1984, pp. 72–73). Given that FY instructors are charged as the “caretakers” of this version of English—a tool for upward mobility and “the good things in life”—the importance of FY writing for student access is clear. What is often less clear is what exemplifies the version of English expected in FY and more advanced academic writing. There are recurring language-level patterns that characterize academic writing and constitute its attendant standards, but they are often tacit and are rarely the focus of FY writing research or instruction.