Inventing the University is an academic article written by David Bartholomae whose main purpose is to make us understand why we as students struggle when writing about a certain subject. The author makes a specific point that as writers the errors we make in writing are not because of our lack of language but by our lack of familiarity with the communities. In the article Bartholomae focuses on comparing basic and expert writers. He analyses students finished work and points out several examples of what it takes to go from a basic writer to an expert writer. In the first example essay Bartholomae uses he point out that the student “even though he knows he doesn’t have the knowledge that makes the discourse more than a routine” (Bartholomae, 1986, p.457). This meant that the student had no awareness of the community he was directing himself to. Every time we sit down and write there is a different community; a different set of people with expert knowledge on that particular subject. With this being said as writers we have “to invent the university”, learn to speak their language and “carry off the bluff”. This means we have to think as experts, write as experts, present exceptional example and develop arguments that will make us sound like we are expects in that subject as well. Knowing how to write to a certain community will put you closer to becoming an expect writer. The second example Bartholomae uses a concluding section that neither gets us to “neither a technical discussion nor an academic discussion” (Bartholomae, 1986, p.458). In this example the student did not have a set of commonplaces, meaning he had no concept or statement that carried its own necessary elaboration to organize and interpret experience. Becoming an expert writer will take time and practice, but once it is done you will be able to “imagine how a reader will respond to a text and transform or restructure what you have to say around a goal shared with a reader”(Bartholomae, 1986, p.459), which is something a basic writer cannot do. After analyzing many students work Bartholomae concluded that the main problem lies within the community and their expectations and suggest that there should be changes in action; which I completely agree with. It is sometimes uncomfortable not knowing what the professors expect from our writing, but this will help make it easier to get started writing.
