This paper discusses some of the problems faced in working with competing theories of basic writing and suggests its own kind of theoretical analysis of nonstandard writing. A brief overview of basic writing theories is presented, and the theories are categorized into two approaches: a traditional approach of teaching by prescription in an authoritarian classroom atmosphere using William Strunk and E. B. White's "The Elements of Style," and a nontraditional approach of teaching by practice with emphasis on the personal and the teacher as friend. The basic writing theory recommended in the paper suggests that students who use nonstandard English learn that the development in standard English of conventions of scholarly discourse was designed to legitimize knowledge, that access to these conventions has been limited by society and has kept nonstandard users powerless, and that mastery of these conventions is a political act. (AEA)