David John Bartholomae (April 20, 1947 – April 4, 2023) was an American scholar in

composition studies Composition studies (also referred to as composition and rhetoric, rhetoric and composition, writing studies, or simply composition) is the professional field of writing, research, and instruction, focusing especially on writing at the college leve ...

. He received his PhD from

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

in 1975 and was a Professor of English and former Chair of the English Department at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...

. His primary research interests are in

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...

literacy Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...

, and

pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken as ...

, and his work engages scholarship in

rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...

and in

American literature American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition thus is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also inc ...

American Studies American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field of scholarship that examines American literature, history, society, and culture. It traditionally incorporates literary criticism, historiography and critical theory. Sch ...

. His articles and essays have appeared in publications such as ''PMLA'', ''Critical Quarterly'', and ''College Composition and Communication''. Bartholomae was also the co-editor, with Jean Ferguson Carr, of the

University of Pittsburgh Press The University of Pittsburgh Press is a scholarly publishing house and a major American university press, part of the University of Pittsburgh. The university and the press are located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The press ...

Series in Composition, Literacy, and Culture, a leading list of monographs in the field. Bartholomae served on the Executive Council of the

Modern Language Association The Modern Language Association of America, often referred to as the Modern Language Association (MLA), is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA aims to "st ...

and as president of the

Conference on College Composition and Communication The Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC, often referred to as "Four Cs") is a national professional association of college and university writing instructors in the United States. Formed in 1949 as an organization within t ...

and president of the Association of Departments of English. In 1985, Bartholomae was the Chair of CCCC, where he gave his CCCC Chair's Address "Freshman English, Composition, and CCCC.”

"Inventing the University"

One of Bartholomae's most renowned claims, that the acquisition of academic

discourse Discourse is a generalization of the notion of a conversation to any form of communication. Discourse is a major topic in social theory, with work spanning fields such as sociology, anthropology, continental philosophy, and discourse analysis. ...

should be a primary ingredient of any first-year writing course, is argued in his widely recognized essay, "Inventing the University". Throughout his essay, known as perhaps one of the most cited and influential in the field of

, Bartholomae (1986) suggests that when college students write, they learn to communicate with academic communities by assembling and mimicking the language found within the scholarly world; that is, students must discover the idiosyncratic ways of knowing, selecting, evaluating, reporting, concluding, and arguing that define the discourse of the post-secondary community (p. 403). Bartholomae (1986), however, admitted to the difficulty of such a task; in fact, he stated it is difficult for basic writers "to take on the role – the voice, the person – of an authority whose authority is rooted in scholarship, analysis, or research" (p. 405). The solution to this problem, Bartholomae (1986) suggested, is for writers to "build bridges" (p. 407) between themselves and their target audience. In order to successfully manipulate readers, writers must be able to find common ground with their audience before moving to more controversial arguments; moreover, to better accommodate their audience, advanced writers not only find common ground with their readers, but also understand their position and knowledge. Bartholomae's book, "Like What We Imagine: Writing and the University", returns to the place of student writing in the university curriculum. In his introduction to the book he says: "This is an end-of-career book, a collection of late essays that reflect on the teaching of reading and writing, on the challenges and value of students' work, and on the place of English in the university curriculum. The chapters are unified by a thread that connects some of the books and ideas, people and places, students and courses that have shaped and sustained my work as a scholar and teacher over time."

"The Study of Error"

Throughout "The Study of Error", Bartholomae (1980) expounds upon the idea that basic writers must be able to "transcribe and manipulate the code of written discourse" in order to develop expert abilities (p. 268). Bartholomae (1980) begins his argument by citing

Mina Shaughnessy Mina Shaughnessy ( Pendo; March 13, 1924 – November 16, 1978), was a teacher and innovator in the field of basic writing at the City University of New York (CUNY). Early life Born in the mining town of Lead, South Dakota, Mina Pendo and he ...

's claim that if teachers of

are to help students develop their writing skills, they must first understand why basic writers make certain mistakes (p. 254). He asserts that the mistakes of basic writers are intentional, catalyzed by a deficient understanding of, and inability to properly identify, how academic language sounds (Bartholomae, 1980, p. 263). Therefore, similar to his claims set forth in "Inventing the University", Bartholomae again suggests that instead of attempting to fix errors via drills and practice sentences, basic writers must learn to understand the code of written

, and mimic the voice of the language found within the academic community.

Debate with Peter Elbow

Some of Bartholomae's claims have created controversy among colleagues. Most notably, Bartholomae engaged

Peter Elbow Peter Elbow (14 April 1935) is a Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he also directed the Writing Program from 1996 until 2000. He writes about theory, practice, and pedagogy, and has authored several bo ...

in a long public debate regarding the role of the university-level student writer. Specifically, at the 1989 and 1991 meetings of the

, Bartholomae and Elbow initiated a prominent discussion regarding personal and academic writing, one which spilled over into the pages of academic journals and was taken up by additional scholars in subsequent years. While both Bartholomae and Elbow agree that training for academic writing should be an integral component of any student's undergraduate journey, they disagree with exactly how the training should be implemented. As a trailblazing social constructionist, Bartholomae's scholarship hinges upon the notion of

discourse communities A discourse community is a group of people who share a set of discourses, understood as basic values and assumptions, and ways of communicating about those goals. Linguist John Swales defined discourse communities as "groups that have goals or pur ...

and makes suggestions on how students should enter the academic

community; contrary to Elbow, he claims that teachers play a vital role in student development, as they construct assignments that allow pupils to mimic the voice(s) within academic

. While Bartholomae asserts that writers must first prove their worth by mimicking the language used throughout discourse communities and argues more power should be given to teachers, Elbow claims just the opposite. As evidenced in ''Writing Without Teachers'', Elbow's scholarship suggests that writing belongs to the writer from the beginning, arguing that students learn by writing without teachers – citing diaries, letters, personal narratives, and poems as examples of his theory (p. 145). Over the years, the two scholars have concluded their debate by essentially agreeing to disagree. In fact, in "Being a Writer vs. Being an Academic: A Conflict in Goals", an essay published in a 1995 issue of the journal ''College Composition and Communication'', Elbow writes: "this is what we academics do: carry on an unending conversation not just with colleagues but with the dead and unborn" (p. 79).

Death

Bartholomae died at his Shadyside home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 4, 2023, from head and neck cancer. He was 75.

Books

* ''Like What We Imagine: Writing and the University. (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021). * ''Writing on the Margins: Essays on Composition and Teaching'' (Hardcover: Palgrave/Macmillan; Softcover: Bedford/St. Martins), 2005. * ''The Teaching of Writing: The Eighty fifth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education'', ed. with Anthony R. Petrosky (Chicago: NSSE and The University of Chicago Press, 1986). * ''Facts, Artifacts and Counterfacts: Reading and Writing in Theory and Practice'', with Anthony R. Petrosky (Montclair, NJ: Boynton/Cook, 1986). Textbooks * ''Ways of Reading: Words and Images'', with Anthony R. Petrosky (Boston: Bedford Books, 2003). * ''Reading the Lives of Others: History and Ethnography'', with Anthony R. Petrosky (Boston: Bedford Books, 1994). * ''Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers'', with Anthony R. Petrosky (Boston: Bedford Books, 1987). Seven editions.

Awards

* 2008: ADE/MLA Francis Andrew March Award * 2006: CCCC Exemplar Award * 2005: MLA Mina Shaughnessy Award, for ''Writing on the Margins'' * 2003–2006: Executive Committee and President-Elect, ADE * 1997–2002: Executive Council, Modern Language Association * 1995: Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award * 1992: Distinguished Alumnus, Ohio Wesleyan University * 1987: Distinguished Achievement Award, Educational Press Association of America * 1985–1989: Chair, Conference on College Composition and Communication (officer’s rotation) * 1982: Fulbright Lecturer (Universidad de Deusto) * 1980: Richard B. Braddock Award

References

External links

David Bartholomae's homepage at the University of Pittsburgh

David Bartholomae's "Inventing the University"

David Bartholomae's "The Study of Error"

Peter Elbow's "Being a Writer vs. Being an Academic: A Conflict in Goals"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bartholomae, David 1947 births 2023 deaths Deaths from cancer in Pennsylvania Rutgers University alumni American academics of English literature University of Pittsburgh faculty Writers from Pittsburgh Social constructionism