This article presents a pedagogical model for a sequence of first-year composition (FYC) assignments that encourages students' first-hand interpretations as insiders into the workings of educational meritocracy. I focus on how students negotiate the personal statement, an institutionally privileged genre for the discovery and definition of…

Contends that evaluations of student writing come not from some transcendent realm but from the discursive practices by which teachers authorize themselves within a given community. Argues that basic writers need explicit knowledge of such practices, and proposes a language-centered curriculum to teach it. (HB)

Considers how sex discrimination and sexist language have affected educational environments, particularly basic writing and English-as-a-Second-Language instruction. Provides four practical suggestions for college teachers of bilingual and/or bidialectical students to alleviate such attitudes and behaviors. (HB)