Writing (composition)

Writing is the practice of composing language and recording it in a visible or otherwise readable form. It includes choices about wording, structure, audience, and medium.

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Writing process: A sequence of activities used to plan, draft, revise, edit, and share a written work. It describes the recurring stages through which composition takes shape.
Writing system: A set of conventions for representing language through visible or tactile signs. It supplies the symbols and rules that make recorded composition possible.
Academic writing: Writing used in scholarly settings to develop claims, explain ideas, and engage with research. It shows how composition serves disciplined inquiry and evidence-based argument.
Cuneiform: A system of writing used in the ancient Near East, made with wedge-shaped impressions on clay. Its early use for records shows composition emerging alongside administration.
Speech: The production of language through spoken sounds, typically in face-to-face or mediated interaction. Speech is language composition without requiring a durable written record.
Rhetoric: The study and practice of communicating effectively through language, symbols, and argument. Its attention to audience and purpose helps explain how writers shape choices.
Orthography: The conventions for spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and other written forms of a language. Its conventions govern how words and sentences are represented on the page.
Creative writing: Writing that uses imaginative forms and techniques to create literary works. It foregrounds invention, voice, and aesthetic effects in composition.
Egyptian hieroglyphs: A writing system used in ancient Egypt, combining logographic, syllabic, and alphabetic signs. They illustrate a distinct early tradition of composing and inscribing texts.
Orality: The use and transmission of language primarily through spoken rather than written communication. Oral traditions preserve and shape language through memory, performance, and repetition.