Errors and Expectations: A Guide for the Teacher of Basic Writing, published in 1977 by Oxford University Press, by Mina P. Shaughnessy, was the first book-length investigation of writing problems experienced by under-prepared college freshmen. At the time of the book’s publication, Shaughnessy was the director of the Instructional Resource Center and an associate dean of CUNY, having previously worked both as a basic writing (BW) instructor and the director of basic writing at City College in New York.

The book grew out of Shaughnessy’s nine years’ experience teaching basic writing to open admissions students. Overwhelmed by the error-ridden compositions produced by her students, she systematically analyzed 4,000 placement essays written by incoming freshmen at City College in order to better understand the logic of student errors in composition. This research—funded in part by the Carnegie Foundation grant—coupled with her own experience provides the foundation of the book which seeks both to inform basic writing instructors and provide them with a means for approaching their students’ areas of weakness. Perhaps the central and most important observation Shaughnessy makes is that there is a pattern to student error.

Shaughnessy’s research centered around the theory that basic writing students write with deficiencies not because they are incapable or disadvantaged, but because they are unskilled beginners who like all beginners of any discipline must learn by mistakes and with much practice.