The reading section I chose is “ Bad ideas about what good writing Is”, specifically “ You can learn to write in general” by Elizabeth Wardle. I chose this piece because the title kind of puzzled me. I’ve heard this statement but I never understood what it means because literally speaking when putting pen to paper there is no “general’ topic to write, everything has intent behind it. The bad idea is the concept that people can learn to write generally. According to Mrs. Wardle, the term is just very broad and simply doesn’t exist because there is no such thing. Every piece written has a specific audience, context, purpose, etc. Wardle even argues this myth “..is a dangerous idea that needs to die because it hurts students and frustrates teachers and employers. And writers who believe it are easily discouraged because they don’t know how to learn what they need to learn in new writing situations.” I completely agree because personally, it can be frustrating not knowing where to start when I’m writing essays and I have been told to practice writing in general. It’s not really about writing in general but more so repurposing your skills to accommodate your situation. What I got from this reading is that “writing” already comes with a pair of basic skills like basic grammatical structures but writing without purpose doesn’t exist. Instead practicing and learning to write in situations is more effective than the idea to “write generally”. Honing your skills to be better equipped at different writing circumstances is a better idea than “ learning to write generally”, the phrase isn’t as exclusive and confusing. 

Unit 2 Topic: 

I decided to change my topic from my previous one and would like to write about the gentrification in NYC neighborhoods. Being born and raised here it hurts to see so many neighborhoods taken over and people being forced to move out. I think it’s a really important issue as I still see this being a future problem.