Writing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Marj Tiefert (talk | contribs) at 15:43, 25 February 2002 (copyediting). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The term "writing" describes any process of recording characters on some permanent or at least semi-permanent medium, with the intention of forming words and other larger linguistic constructs. For example, one can use a pen to write characters on paper or a computer to record characters to disk. Of course the use of pen and paper has historical primacy, and one could argue that the second is merely analogous to writing. Still, as commonly usee, writing refers to recording visual characters on physical or electronic media.

In the western world, this means putting characters together to form words and sentences. In cultures using idiograms, each character used represents a word or concept, which can then be put together to form sentences.

"Writing" is also often used to describe the craft of creating a larger work of literature. This is an extension of the original meaning, which would include the act of writing longer texts. Writing in this sense can refer to the production of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.


See also, Orthography or perhaps Literature...