Each time we categorize writing at the basic level rather than above or below it, we have to ask ourselves fundamental questions about what it means to able to write: If you are a writer, does that mean you are an expert at writing everything – novels, biographies, product manuals, press releases? If you know how to write, does that mean you are equally competent to write term papers and screenplays? Or do writer and to write refer to something narrower?

We encounter the same kinds of questions when we categorize texts. Some of us think that it is not possible, really, to write a book; it is only possible to write something more specific: a novel or a crime novel or, perhaps, a police procedural. Generally speaking, the more subordinate the category, the more specific – that is, nontransferable – the knowledge and skills. I have seen best-selling author Harlan Coben described as the “master of the soft-centered suburban thriller” (Wiegand 2007). A subordinate category indeed. And a very particular sort of writing expertise.