Converting Stream to String and back…what are we missing?

string test = "Testing 1-2-3";

// convert string to stream
byte[] byteArray = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(test);
MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream(byteArray);

// convert stream to string
StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(stream);
string text = reader.ReadToEnd();

var stream = new MemoryStream();
var streamWriter = new StreamWriter(stream, System.Text.Encoding.UTF8);
Serializer.Serialize<SuperExample>(streamWriter, test);

public static string Serialize<T>(T value) {

if(value == null) {
return null;
}

XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));

XmlWriterSettings settings = new XmlWriterSettings();
settings.Encoding = new UnicodeEncoding(false, false); // no BOM in a .NET string
settings.Indent = false;
settings.OmitXmlDeclaration = false;

using(StringWriter textWriter = new StringWriter()) {
using(XmlWriter xmlWriter = XmlWriter.Create(textWriter, settings)) {
serializer.Serialize(xmlWriter, value);
}
return textWriter.ToString();
}
}

public static T Deserialize<T>(string xml) {

if(string.IsNullOrEmpty(xml)) {
return default(T);
}

XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));

XmlReaderSettings settings = new XmlReaderSettings();
// No settings need modifying here

using(StringReader textReader = new StringReader(xml)) {
using(XmlReader xmlReader = XmlReader.Create(textReader, settings)) {
return (T) serializer.Deserialize(xmlReader);
}
}
}