Bartholomae was also the co-editor, with Jean Ferguson Carr, of the University of Pittsburgh Press Series in Composition, Literacy, and Culture, a leading list of monographs in the field.
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."
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's claim that if teachers of composition 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 discourse, and mimic the voice of the language found within the academic community.