From the reading, we are introduced to threshold concepts, ideas that are central to understanding

a subject that one cannot continue in that subject without learning those ideas.(6) Threshold

concepts are useful because they are the foundations to learning more and deeper into a subject.

However, it can be difficult because when a person comes across a threshold concept, it can

seem like standing at a precipice looking down into all this new knowledge. Wardle and Downs

consider threshold concepts about writing to be bothersome because when people finally get to a

point in life where you’re finally not being told how to write and studying writing, students

already have their own concepts and foundations for what writing is.(7) Such a problem can be

compared to if someone was taught that 2+2 was equal to 5 all their life, but suddenly they are in

a different environment and now 2+2 is equal to 4. It’s like having everything you ever learned

get thrown away and being handed something new. In such a way, I have my own conceptions of

writing as well. To me, writing is always going to be filled with ethos, pathos, and logos

regardless if it’s a speech, an essay or a research paper. It will always have one of the three. I

also think that there is always some sort of trace to the person who wrote a piece. Their bias,

even in writing that should be unbiased, will still permeate into their writing. I mostly learned

these conceptions of writing from my high school education and from reading novels, news

articles, and an occasional research paper if it was interesting enough. For my own writing, my

11th grade English teacher ingrained into me to never use the word “thing” in any of my papers

or essays. Out of the four threshold concepts introduced the chapter, one that mostly aligns with

my conception of bias in writing is how writing is impacted by prior experiences. (8) The author

mentions that humans are an accumulation of everything we have ever experienced and done so

in effect, it makes sense that our writing would be affected by experiences because that’s what
the writer can relate to the most. My conceptions also don’t really oppose any of the threshold

concepts introduced in the chapter.