What We Learned: Writing, Editing, and Composing

The terms "writing," "editing," and "composing" can be defined as separate words, yet they all go together in some way. Writing, in my opinion, is something that does not necessarily require much thought. It can be as simple as just getting your thoughts out on to the page. Editing is where the effort begins. This is the stage where I may start think more and more about my writing, and how I can improve it. Composing can be considered as the final product. When I compose, I use writing and editing to really think about what it is I want to say to my audience. Composing is to create for a specific purpose of sharing with an audience.

I feel that these terms are all related in the way that you can start with writing ideas out for something you want to compose, and editing is constantly playing a role in this transformation. To make edits, or to revise your written work, is all a part of the writing and composing process.

I feel that the key terms that are included in defining the terms writing, editing, and composing are audience, genre, circulation, and exigency. When composing, you are attempting to appeal to an audience in some way. The audience you choose to appeal to may affect the genre of which your composition is a part of. The way that the composition circulates can affect the success of the composition in terms of understanding the material. Exigency is included in these definitions because when writing and editing, there are problems that can arise that you must overcome in order to create a successful work.

My experience with project two has helped shaped these definitions because project two forced me to think outside of my creative zone. Composing does not simply have to mean writing something, it can be creating art in the simplest way. My experiences with writing, editing, and composing outside of this course has helped shape my definitions because those experiences allow me to really form my own definitions of what each term is. For example, some people may think that editing is to only check back on what someone has written one time. For me, I know that editing is a much larger process than that and it takes place throughout the entire writing process. I feel that these terms can be defined through the use of a dictionary, but personal definitions are what make me actually comprehend the terms.