Journal 7

      I would define writing as the physical act of putting pen to paper or typing a document. Writing is one of the forms of rhetoric. I feel that in order to make a distinction between writing and composing, we have to make the distinction between the purpose and impact of the two. Writing is more built up of raw ideas and information. I would define editing as the process of converting this mass of raw information and ideas into a more comprehensible and correct piece. The purpose of editing is to create sentences that are more clear and sentence and paragraph structure that is more flowing. Editing involves correcting errors, making the piece more precise, and creating the most effective structure for the piece. I would define composing as the process of creating a piece of literature with a purpose and an intended audience in order to express and translate ideas. In order to effectively compose, you have to use language effectively and be able to appeal to your audience and know what they are looking for from your piece. The key terms necessary for defining writing, editing, and composing are: text, communication, expression, circulation, technology, motivation, and environment. This is because all three must involve text and the purpose of all three involves communication. Writing conveys raw ideas as a reminder to the author or editor. Editing's purpose is to  improve communication through a series of corrections and reorganization. The purpose of composing is to communicate ideas to an audience.  These reasons are similar to those for the term expression. Neither writing, editing, or composing can be successful without circulation, which is often aided by technology. For editing, the piece must be passed to multiple people in order to ensure that all edits are caught before publishing. Motivation and environment are essential to the success and quality of writing, editing, and composition. Without the correct focus, these will be incomplete and inadequate. My experience with project two has shaped my definitions because it reminded me that compositions do not always involve writing. For example, my project two composition began as a drawing and was converted into a video. Previously, I believed that a composition had to reflect passion and an artistic nature. Outside of this class, I have realized that this is untrue. A composition can be a purely informational piece void of any kind of passion. It can be argued; however, that the best compositions are rooted in passion. These realizations have been instrumental in my decision to change my keywords from communication, information, text, persuasion, passion, art, and expression to text, communcation, expression, circulation, technology, motivation, and environment.