Mina Shaughnessy (1924-1978) is recognized as a leading figure in the field of Basic Writing and as a devoted advocate for open admissions at colleges and universities.  

In an interview Shaughnessy described her childhood in South Dakota as “filled with educators whom I admired.” Not only were her mother and two of her aunts teachers, when she was a child her family also took two boarders into their home who were also teachers from the local elementary school. Shaughnessy’s older brother, George recalled that these teachers always ate family meals with them and “they would often play word games at the dinner table and correct each other’s grammar” (Mahar 7). In addition to being surrounded by educators, Shaughnessy often said that her passion for teaching “those who needed it most” was greatly influenced by the fact that her father had only attained an eighth-grade education, and had been labeled “unteachable” early in his life (Mahar 3).

Shaughnessy studied Speech and Theater at Northwestern University where she learned to overcome her Dakota accent. Throughout her life people would comment on her poise and how she carried herself saying she had an “electrifying effect…on those who heard her speak” (Mahar 21). While her energy was likely a product of her dedication to her students and passion for her work, it was also very likely a result of her training in theater and public speaking. 

In 1946 after graduating Shaughnessy and a friend moved to New York to pursue theater. It was here that she began teaching part time at first, while she continued working on a graduate degree at Columbia University. In 1961 she began teaching night classes at Hunter college, and in 1964 she accepted a full-time position teaching freshman composition on Hofstra University (Mahar 80). At Hofstra, Shaughnessy began tutoring minority students through a grant-funded program called Project NOAH (Mahar 80). Her co-worker and friend reflected that they would take the train back to Manhattan and talk about the “patterns of errors” they were seeing in their students (Mahar 92).

As the director for the SEEK program (Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge) from 1967 to 1972 she paved the way for Basic Writing to be considered an academic field worthy of its own pursuit. She conducted research on the writing problems of disadvantaged students and determined that by identifying these errors can show an educator where to focus and how to teach.

Her controversial view that the problems in education was a systemic one, and not due to “bad students” is likely one of the reasons she was passed up as Dean of Basic Education at City College of New York in 1974.

She was the founding editor of the now prominent Journal of Basic Writing in 1975, a journal dedicated to teachers of basic writing courses. All of the editors and contributors in the journal had been teachers in the writing program at CCNY for at least five years.

Shaughnessy’s 1977 book Errors and Expectations: A Guide for the Teacher of Basic Writing is still considered the holy grail of publications on teaching methodologies for instructors of freshman level composition. It was the first full length book completely dedicated to examining and extracting meaning from the writing errors of students who were considered “underprepared for college-level writing.