Writing & Content: Unlikely Combination

This week's content in terms of our course's reading and the lecture was the difference between writing and content and just how they've overlapped in the last few years. In “When Writing Becomes Content,” Lisa Dush, the author of the article, discusses ways in which we’ve had to adjust how we write to keep our writing relevant and accessible to the modern-day user. The article’s purpose is summarized on page 14, when Dunst states, “No Matter how well a post is crafted as writing, it is unlikely to meet its rhetorical aims if it is not also prepared as computable content.” By way of explanation, even if a body of writing is excellent, there is no point in sharing it with others online if it does not meet the needs and demands of the digital world.

I see the idea of effective online writing as content in news articles I read on Apple News every morning. Although articles typically contain tons of information, it’s short and attention-grabbing titles that catch my attention and that of millions of other readers. Can you imagine if an article about a crime scene was written with terminology only understood by forensic investigators and law enforcement? No one would read—let alone find it on the internet. For writing to be admissible to digital users, it is essential that one can easily search it up and know what we’re reading within a matter of seconds. The internet has too much information and distractions for esoteric information to receive attention. As writers, it is our job to document and inform readers of useful information and ensure they can get to it. How do we do that? Making writing into content.