- Bartholomae’s chapter essentially tells the story of how he became a professional writer and teacher and how his experiences and habits have shaped his beliefs about writing. Reading and writing are not just things he does; he thinks of himself as a reader and a writer. Go back through the essay and give each numbered section a title that you think encapsulates the focus of the section and its role in creating this identity.
I: Resistance
II: Learning to Revise
III: Imitation is the Foundation
IV: Finding a Motive to Write
V: Other Writers
- Recalling his days as an undergraduate student playing football, Bartholomae says that the best players “understood the game and movement and fitness in ways that I did not” (194). How does this analogy help to explain his abilities and practices as a writer?
This analogy helps to explain the root of his problems with writing. It wasn’t that he was a bad writer but that he didn’t understand how to write or why he wrote.
- Bartholomae borrows from literary critic Harold Bloom when he describes the way “strong teachers” can create an “anxiety of influence” for writers who follow in their tradition (197). Bearing in mind that Bartholomae defines “teachers” broadly, explain why he thinks tradition can be both “an inspiration and a burden.”
Bartholomae thinks tradition can be both an inspiration and a burden because having teachers and previous writings to study from can inspire a student to do better. However, it can also inhibit a student because they try to replicate the writing so vigilantly. This can help them to be better at writing in general but doesn’t allow them to write on their own.
- For your final step, locate a passage from “Against the Grain” and write up your own reading question. Be sure to set up the passage, quote directly from it, and make the question open-ended (i.e. capable of more than a yes or no answer).
Towards the end of Bartholomae’s “Against the Grain”, he makes the claim that “no writer ever writes on his own but always in the presence of others” (198). This seems like a bold claim, explain your take on what this means and why Bartholomae would think this is an important concept.
