In Attempt to Define Writing

Writing …

… is an activity that makes me eat, specifically carbohydrates.

… is a verb or noun.

… is [partly] a transfer of thoughts (noises and sounds in our heads) into a series of symbols, marks, and/or characters.

“…because, to paraphrase Bakhtin, words carry with them the places where they have been" (535). – Lester Faigley, on why humans might understand texts more easily than computers

… is a creation of meaning and communication.

… can always be placed in a context, has a purpose, and is written to express something to an audience.

… is forming symbols, characters, or marks in a particular way to communicate according to the conventions of a specific genre. And sometimes writing is knowing these conventions and being able to break them on purpose.

… makes one feel inadequate if others can “do” it better.

“We’re not supposed to write like published authors. We’re supposed to write like….idiots.” – Erin Brady, as quoted by Garrison Gondek, on graduate student writing

… does not have to make sense. 

… is creating a tone based on the words, punctuation, and organization chosen.

… is the act that makes someone an author.

… is valued in different ways by every person. Different conventions are valued for different types of writing. For example, Twitter seems like a writing space that would allow lax grammar, slang, and even “text speak,” but not everyone agrees:

A screenshot of Twitter after searching the word "grammar."

… seems to be very similar to this definition of composition, although writing is only one part of composition.  

… is creating. A new understanding of writing is developing from culture’s use of computers, smartphones, and other technologies to communicate. 

"Writing" to this author means choosing more than words to communicate.

Writing has the ability to take on many definitions depending on what it is—a verb, a noun, an act, a process, a creation. If I had to define it in one sentence—what I should be doing, yet struggle to understand how—it would be this:

Writing is making physical marks—as Walter Ong says, a “residue” (11)—as a way to communicate; a writing is physical markings that communicate.

Works Cited

Faigley, Lester. "Competing Theories of Process: A Critique and a Proposal." College English 48.6     (1986): 527-42. Print.

Garrison Gondek (GarrisonGondek). "'We're not supposed to write like published authors. We're supposed to write like... idiots.' - @erinbradyy." 16 Nov 2011, 1:28 p.m. Tweet.

"#15 First World Problems II." Memegenerator.net. Web. 11 Sept. 2012.

Ong, Walter J. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the World. 3rd ed. Toylor & Francis Group, 2005. Print.