The phrase "Basic Communication" in the title of this scarce volume does not refer to basic or remedial writing, but rather to a first-year course in introductory communication skills, often combining speaking, reading, writing, and listening.  The use of "basic" to refer to students who are not writing at some expected curricular level did not become wide spread until the late 1970s, with the Journal of Basic Writing (Vol.1, 1975), and Mina Shaughnessy's essay "Basic Writing" in Gary Tate (Ed.), Teaching Composition: Ten Bibliographic Essays (Texas Christian University Press, 1976).  Even as late as Richard M. Bossone's Teaching Basic English Courses (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1971), "basic" is distinguished from "remedial," although the lines between the two terms are getting blurred.

At the 1947 Basic Communication conference, mention is made of exemplary programs at the University of Iowa, Michigan State University , Stephens College (in Columbia, Missouri), the University of Florida, Columbia University, and the University of Denver.  Presenters gave talks on programs at two-year colleges, "remedial" writing, semantics for students in a post-war culture, reading "clinics," the student-centered writing center at the University of Denver and its ways of dealing with writerís block, and the basic-communication program at San Bernardino Valley College and its ways of dealing with "sub-college" writing problems of students who failed to place into Subject A. 

The volume was edited by Thelma R. Sherman, and is indexed in CompPile.

RH, March 2003