Do you think there are such things as “general writing skills”?

Let’s use sports as a comparison. 
Is there such thing as “general sports skills”? 

In College Writing and Beyond (2007), Anne Beaufort says, “It is as if there were a course in general ball handling that were intended to teach skills applicable to playing jacks, tennis, baseball, and soccer. Given the way freshman writing is typically taught, graduates of these courses could easily think the standards for writing they have been given in freshman writing are universal.”

Yet, writers are experts in certain communities, just like athletes are experts in certain sports. We can’t just study writing, we have to study the community/context. Just like athletes can’t just study athleticism; they have to study the specific game.

• What discourse communities do your texts come from?

• What genres do these communities value?

• Can you infer what the discourse community values in ”good” writing? (in terms of content, structure, style)