Journal 7 - Julia Hecht

WRITING - As I’ve mentioned in previous journal entries, writing is extremely important to me. I had previously described it as “pouring one’s soul onto a page”, or something along the lines of leaving a piece of yourself behind for other people to experience. Writing is unique; it is personal, and even the blandest, most straightforward article or essay contains some trace of the author that created it.

EDITING - Once the chaotic mess of someone’s mind has been transcribed, sense has to be made of it before it can connect with an audience. That is where editing comes in. Editing a piece gives it clarity and specific language tailored to an exigence.

COMPOSING - Just like how writing has many forms (poetry, articles, essays, even social media), composing also has its own collection of subcategories (writing, painting, photographing, sculpting, scrapbooking, and the list goes on). Composing is no one specific action—as long as creation is happening, that is composing.

Writing is a subcategory of composing, just as editing is a subcategory to writing. I would structure those terms, and related key terms, branching off from each other instead of being interdependent.

Key terms I think are important in understanding writing, composing, and editing are creativity, process, collaboration, change, ethics, personality, exigence, medium, and audience. These terms can interconnect and branch away from each other, and create one big web of a map. Composing is a process that contains many more concepts than it would appear to have at first glance.

Project two helped me to solidify my definitions because of the sheer oddness of it. Never before had I remediated anything, or created any sort of deliberate assemblage (though I’m sure there were times I did that without realizing it). I was able to expand my understanding of what it meant to write and compose, and encompass more of what it truly means to create something.

Outside of class, I spend quite a bit of time composing recreationally. I am always drawing, writing, or sculpting. Because of this, I have been exposed to many different forms of composing—it just never became clear to me before taking this class.

The biggest difference I’ve made to my theory of composing is the inclusion of the writing process. I had been so focused on what writing is and what is does, that I completely ignored what it is like to compose.