Articles for Review

The two articles I chose for review are "Material Realities in the Basic Writing Classroom: Intersections of Discovery for Young Women Reading Persepolis 2" by Susan Bernstein and "The City University of New York and the Shaughnessy Legacy: Today's Scholars Talk Back" by a ton of scholars.
The reasons I chose these articles are pure self-interest. The first article deals with two young women's reactions to reading a graphic novel. The abstract says, "these women.....dealt with struggles against marginality and invisibility in a bureaucratic and unfamiliar environment." Not only does this idea seem universal, not just for women, but basic writers everywhere, it brings in literature to the composition classroom and shows reactions.
Last semester, in English 620, there was a lengthy debate about bringing literature into the comp classroom and my view on the matter suprised me. I'm a literature major; as an undergrad I was a creative writer, so by all accounts I should be for bringing literature into the composition classroom. After reading articles on both sides of the debate, I found I did not favor this action at all. I'm just curious to see how the author of this article did this without letting the class become a full-blown lit class (if she succeeded).
The second article deals with what we have been talking about in 621 and reading in the Representing the Other book. I'm curious to see what other people think about the open enrollment at CUNY and how it affected the basic writing program at that school. Thirty years have passed since the school decided to go with open enrollment and it always seems like time gives better perspective to a situation than the actual moment everything is happening.