In this article, the author talks about sentence-level error, error in grammar, mechanics, punctuation, usage, and the teacher of basic writing. He states that communities are crawling with teachers and administrators and parents and state legislators and school board members who are engaged in sometimes rancorous debate over what to do about error. He explores this division in the responses to error and tries to account for it and, in the process, describes what the mainstream responses in the teacher profession seem to be. In addition the author examines what best practices exist in an effort to reduce error and encourage good writing.