Journal 1: Words that matter (418 words)

Literally speaking, to write is to connect characters into words on a page to convey a message. To me, writing is the expression of feeling, directionality, unbiased and biased opinion. Many words carry connotation and rhetoric. I also believe writing to be the way we get our point across and the way we contribute to the wealth of knowledge in society today. To be able to read and write is how we campaign, spread popular opinion, and distribute directions or services. Memos, texts, posters, advertisements, are all forms of writing that we use in our day to day life.

Rhetoric by definition holds persuasion and effect. Writing is meant to have effect on our actions, opinion, or general thoughts. For example, advertisements are a form of writing that are meant to sway the general public into a certain action. Letters hold feeling. Novels contain stories. Scientific journals harbor information which can have a profound effect on things like medicine. Observational writing can change opinion across the globe; Just think back to the history lesson where you learned that people once thought the world was flat. Writing is seemingly limitless in its applications.

With writing being so vast, surely it's accompanied by an array of definitions as well. A couple that come to mind are persuasion, conversation, freedom, community and imagination.

Persuasion through text does exactly as it seems. It’s meant to lead the reader in a specific direction, action, or opinion.

Conversational writing is normally informal and often used in tag lines, storytelling, and advertisements. It can get to the reader on a level that even person-to-person conversation sometimes can’t. It is therefore, very valuable.

Freedom and creativity are also invaluable. Without freedom of speech or freedom of the press, it would be difficult to get our true intentions across. We’ve seen much of this use of freedom/creativity in our most recent election.

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, there is a strong sense of community in some aspects of writing as well. If we go back to a popular example, the campaigning process of the election, we see that propaganda, signs, bumper stickers, and other examples of writing bring together all walks of people to a common cause and give them a sense of community.

Imagination is probably my most applicable definition of writing. All writing in the world consists of an author’s imagination and zeal for his or her topic. We would be lost without it; Stuck in a monotonous writing routine if we abandoned our imagination.