Journal 7

Currently how I would define the term writing as the act of using some form of alphabet to bring forward an idea or message into a physical or digital reality. I would define the term composing as another way of portraying the idea of creation and this action of creation does not necessarily have to be strictly in the physical world, but can include the acts of composition inside of one's head that haven't yet been brought into reality. I would define the term editing as the action of modifying and changing a composition. The key terms that I feel are necessary in order to give a fully accurate definition of these terms would be creativity (because in order for an act of writing, composing, or editing to take place one must have the creative means in order to come to a point to have something they want to say), message (when writes or composes it is for the purposes of getting some sort of message across to an audience), audience (a composition or written work wouldn't be able to exist without the audience, even if the audience is only the composer), genre (the genre of a work in inherently linked to the creativity of a work), and design (this too is inherently linked to the creativity of a work as well as the genre of a work).

My experiences with project two have shaped my definitions because I think it brought my attention more to the design element of compositions and the importance that it can hold in an understanding understanding and interpreting a composition. Outside of this course my work with writing, editing, and composing (especially in my History of Text Technologies class) has effected the shape of my definitions because it has helped me to view compositions as having no strict structure and has allowed me to see first hand how the design of a text is effected by the message that it has to say through visits to the special collections and viewing objects that wouldn't have really jumped into my mind before. A specific change that I have noticed in my own theory of composing compared to what I had believed our second week of class is that I had pretty heavily tied perspective and bias into the role of the message and while I still think that they play a role, I think that they don't need to be stated separately from audience and that they aren't absolutely necessary to mention when defining writing or composing.