What is Writing? In-class responses

What is writing?

1. The recording of stories, facts, and information for masses to communicate.
2. Writing is a way to express what you want to say verbally on paper.
3. Writing is using letters to make up words to express ideas.
4. Non-verbal form of communication using symbols to represent words and sounds.  Used to express knowledge.
5. Writing is a form of communication to transfer information silently from one or more people to one or more people.
6. Writing is the art of words to form stories, poetry, prose or other structures of writing.
7. Having the ability to compose ideas of thoughts onto a page in order to explain or express that particular idea.
8. Writing is speech that is readable often on paper or a computer.

Can we be more specific?  What about the writing that you do every day?  Writing is not just the assignments you do for classes or, for some of you, a way to express your creativity.  We mainly write to communicate.  We write emails, letters (some people are old fashioned), texts, instant messages, comments on Facebook, comments on blogs, tweets, etc.  People write more now than before we had the technology to communicate with friends half way across the world.

How does writing work?

1. Writing works by writing down what you need to say.
2. Writing works by thinking up a concept and putting it down on paper.
3. The mind forms what it wants to say and the writing is the product of these thoughts.  Writing must first be planned out if it wants to be neat and successful.
4. Letters represent sounds and when properly placed create words.
5. Writing is when you put pen to paper and say anything that is on your mind.
6. Writing is when one takes pen to paper, or fingers to a keyboard, and expresses ideas that others will be able to understand.
7. Writing uses words to create images in one's mind, helping to allow the reader to perceive it as he or she wants to.

The question is difficult.  Are we talking about how writing happens, the process of learning to write and how we write down what we want to communicate?  Or are we talking about how writing engages readers successfully?  What do you think?

What is your relationship to writing?

For some of us, our relationship with writing is both extremely private and very public.  We may love or hate writing, but then again, we may only love or hate academic writing.  We may really enjoy writing about how the day went on Facebook and then commenting on our friends' pages.  We may find ourselves in our journals.  We may have mixed feelings about writing.  

However you feel, I hope that during this class you and writing can work together on friendly terms.  You can always come see me or go to the Student Writing Center for assistance.  Writing is something that I enjoy in many forms, but that does not always means that writing is easy for me or that I do not work at it.  It is something that I have had a lot of practice doing.  I am a writer, as are all of you.