The Basics Skills English 100 course at Slippery Rock University, having changed from a traditional approach to an approach that reflects knowledge gained through research about the needs of basic writers, shows the progress basic writers can make in a summer program. Thirty students met six times a week for five weeks in one-and-a-half hour periods. Each day they practiced free writing, produced one or two pages of journal writing, and practiced sentence combining exercises. Evaluation was by teacher-written comments instead of a grade, by small group discussions, and by short individual conferences. The pre- and posttest measures--a Likert type attiatude scale, a T-unit analysis, and a holistic evaluation of in-class essays--demonstrated that current writing theory and research can be implemented successfully into pedagogy. By the end of the five-week program students indicated that they felt more confident of their writing skills, varied their syntax effectively within their essays, and improved the overall quality of their writing through careful revision. A collection of the students' best work was printed for distribution. (EL)