Text
Also called: copy or copying
A text is a collection of words, which together tell a message. Texts can be recorded and conveyed in a written form or by speech.
Text in writing
A written text can be communicated through printed matter, such as a letter, newspaper, magazines, brochures or a book. Before the advent of the printing press, people relied on handwriting to write and reproduce text.
Thanks to computers and the Internet, texts can also be stored and exchanged digitally. In the first decades, users relied on word processors, physical storage media (such as the floppy disk) and printers to do this. With the Web, distributing a text has become much easier, via e-mail, websites and social media, for example.
The correct use of punctuation allows the marking of pauses, phrases, enumerations and quotations, among other things, within a written text.
Text in speech
We use spoken texts every day when we talk to those around us. But spoken messages are also fired at us in other ways. For example, consider programs and advertisements on radio and television.
Text in our daily lives
Using text to communicate, whether in writing or speech, often goes on in our daily lives without us thinking particularly about it. Finding words to express what we think, what we find and have experienced is almost automatic.
When text is used to deliberately convey a particular message, this does receive more explicit attention.
The writer of a book or article and the sender of an advertising message will take great care with the form and content of a text. These determine the impression on the recipient of the information and whether they will be convinced. Before such texts reach us, a careful process of writing and editing has usually taken place.
