I gravitated toward the article by Michael Carter, The Idea of Expertise: An Exploration of Cognitive and Social Dimensions of Writing, I never thought of writers being divided into categories of experts and novices. I have always thought of writers as those who are “good writers” and those whose writing may not be a Forte. I would not say in writing there are experts because to me writing is based on your opinion, experiences, your findings, etc. When I think of an “expert”, I think of someone better than others at doing something anyone else can learn. For example, in a video game, anyone who dedicates the time and effort to learn how to pass a level or the entire game, can become an expert. Eventually even help others become experts too. I do not believe in using the term “expert” to describe a writer; however, I understand someone can become a great writer by improving their writing skills. I also argue that writers are not experts because in school I have learned that everyone is considered a writer and because everyone is considered a writer, those who truly enjoy writing can continue to improve and broaden their writing skills and those who find writing tedious will conform to the basics.
Additionally, good writers are those who become confident and strong willed in writing. In other words, they write what they think and do not pay much mind to what others may think. Again, this also related back to targeted audiences and can correlate with the article on writing with ethics. As I mentioned above, writing pieces are created from personal experience and/or beliefs, why should ethics be mixed in? When someone is giving their opinion (on anything) the last thing that comes to mind is thinking, “is this the right or wrong thing to do?”, before they express how they feel. To sum up my points, I believe writing is personal and should not be incorporated with ethics nor should there be categories dividing writers into “experts” and “novices”.
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