To do something in general or generally, means to complete a task or action with no specific direction or goal. Wardle makes the argument that writing in general is not possible no matter the level of writing that you are at. For example, Wardle said to go sit somewhere and write a piece without using any type of history, criteria, ideas, or anything else that could give her instruction on what to write. As I’ve tested personally, you can’t write without any criteria to follow, goal to accomplish, or audience to speak to. There are many factors that could come into play when understanding what you going to write.
Having rules such as being able to “write in general” is a harmful and not effective term as Wardle says “The idea that we can all learn to “write in general” is not just a harmless myth”. I believe that this thought is opposite to what most students are taught in regard to writing. Training students to get used to writing with criteria, objectives, or instruction, gets them in shape to believe that that’s how all writing tasks should be. Which is true. Writing is a procedure that needs to be executed by some type of plan.
Something that I feel Wardle made a good decision on including was reassuring writers of their writing processes. Because writing can be tackled with different approaches, there is always room for improvement. Writing of all sorts can create all sorts of experiences, lessons, and discoveries, and Wardle says that that is a part of adapting to different situations. Once a writing task is assigned, or you know what your piece of writing needs to be, that allows you to “become aware of new content, be on the lookout for examples, and willing to accept the struggling and practice part of writing” as Wardle said.
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