Journal 5

After completion and reflection of project one, I would define writing as the process through which one comes to communicate ideas through a medium. Writing is how something gets from the mind into a form that can be communicated to others. Although similar, writing and composing have different meanings. The two words may be used interchangeably but composition implies a deeper focus on the rhetorical choices made when writing. At the most basic level, writing refers to communicating an idea while composition refers to the choices one makes when writing. Composition is more encompassing because it takes into account the medium and other rhetorical choices, either made consciously or subconsciously, that the author makes.

            My prior experiences with writing and composition have shaped my understanding of these terms completely. Everything I understand about either of the terms is what I have learned and come to know after doing it myself. I learn best from concrete methods and as I gain experience with writing and composing, I gain a better understanding of the two terms and their differences. As I understand these terms and differentiate a distinction between the two, this is only based on my individual understanding of writing and composing. To me, writing is a unspecific term that just refers to putting what is in your mind down on paper, while composition implies something more purposeful and describes the choices one makes when writing. To me these distinctions exist because that is what writing and composing are to me. Each individual will hold different beliefs on what writing and composing are, and their experiences with the terms will largely shape how they view each term.

            When writing and composing the list of key terms that comes to mind are: audience, articulation, rhetoric, medium, purpose, and understanding. These key words are much different than my original set of key words because my experience and understanding of what writing and composition are have changed with the experiences presented to me in class. I chose these words because to me, they embody why a person writes and the choices one must make when composing. Writing is truly embodied by the terms audience, purpose, articulation, and understanding, while composition is embodied by the terms rhetoric, medium, and purpose.