The question of who is the basic writer threads the history of Basic Writing, characterizing many disciplinary tensions and concerns. When traced to Basic Writing's beginnings as part of open admissions at CUNY, the question often links to Shaughnessy's "Errors and Expectations" as a telling of basic writers' language deficiencies. This essay attempts to reclaim the question of who is the basic writer for Basic Writing studies by proposing to offer it to graduate students of Basic Writing and their mentors as a heuristic occasion for professional development. To de-link the question a bit from its acquired history, I critique and reframe "Errors'" relation to its open admissions context and to its author's intentions for informing teacher disposition and emphasizing student affect. As well, I highlight examples of student-present literature for how they model teacher disposition in view of this question, and I reference recent basic writing scholars' efforts to view students more authentically from co-constructive and race-conscious perspectives.