Haas and Bartholomae

"The inexperienced writer is left with a more fragmentary record of the comings and goings of academic discourse" (523). Bartholomae makes a good point that inexperienced writers have not had the opportunity to learn from being corrected by professors, and therefore will struggle to write in the authoritative acadmic discourse.

Haas similary understands experience as a key role toward becoming a better writer, but also a better reader. "As a senior, Eliza was trying to find or make a place for herself within an academic community, and she used reading to help her reach that goal" (371). Similar to writing experience, Eliza was able to learn from her reading what the academic language is.

Both of these quotes show that, for many students, pure talent is not what makes them a great writer or reader. It takes experience and practice in order to learn from mistakes and improve. If a student is involved in reading material that uses the language of the esteemed academic discourse, then they will learn to write that way. In the same way, if a student starts out as a basic writer, the only improvement on their writing will most likely be correlated to the number of papers they turn in and then have returned to them with teacher's comments and suggestions. I think that Haas makes it very clear that experience is of the utmost importance, since her study follwed a student who steadily improved her reading skills over a span of four years at a university.