Summary of Inventing the University

Inventing the University written by Dr. David Bartholomae is an article of the difficulty students face when preparing and presenting writing pieces. Whether it be a pier audience, or professors and university staff audience. The difficulty that was the main point of the article was if students were or were not able to write in appropriation to whatever provided topic. The student must be able to assume the language, knowledge, and comfortability with said knowledge of the particular subject. This is even despite having any experience or knowledge of the subject. Bartholomae discussed multiple essays from differently skilled and different overall student writers. There were different attributes, strong and weak, that were acknowledged among these student writers based off their writing style and ways that they addressed their audience and exactly how they viewed the readers of their writing. Within the article, Bartholomae described a writer who wrote an essay about creating a clay model of the earth. In this essay, they wrote as if they were speaking to university staff, yet, were still described as a basic writer. Another essay Bartholomae mentioned was one of which a writer that was able to touch base with the commonplace or an elaboration of a cultural or institutionalized concept. It is heavily mentioned that student writers need be obtain the education of using commonplaces, habits, rituals, and connections within the academic community. University faculty are looking to see originality and possession, while also being able to go into many different discourses.