One way Shaughnessy worked to elevate the status of the SEEK program was to treat basic writing as a field of academic scholarship. Her colleagues remember that she was the first one most of them had met that "was making a formal, scholarly inquiry into the teaching of ‘basic’ writing" (97).
Shaughnessy's efforts to enhance the SEEK program's reputation involved treating basic writing as a legitimate area of academic inquiry. Her colleagues remember that she was the first person they met who was undertaking a rigorous, scholarly examination of how to teach basic writing.