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Subject:Re: 'author' vs. 'write' From:Pam Owen <Nighthawk1 -at- MINDSPRING -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 4 Jun 1997 12:20:15 -0400
>Mary Howe wrote:
>>
>> Here's a picky little question:
>>
>> What is the difference between the verbs 'to author' and 'to write'?
>> I've never used 'author' myself because I just thought it was a social
>> dialect variation (like 'home' and 'house', 'drapes' and 'curtains',
>> 'frosting' and 'icing', etc.).
>>
>> I'm posting this here because 'to author' appears to have a special
>> meaning to technical writers. If this turns into a discussion of the
>> connotations/dialect differences among all the words above, let's take
>> it to copyediting-l.
I'm coming in late to this discussion, but I've been on deadline and just
got around to reading my mail. I just wanted to add my two cents to
everybody else's. The first time I heard the term "authoring" in relation
to computing was "authoring software." This was years ago when multimedia
programming on CD-ROM was just getting started. The term "authoring
software" referred to programs that helped software developers use
programming languages, such as "C," to develop multimedia programs without
having to be expert at a the language and write every line of code. For
experts at writing code, such software just speeded up the process.
I never used such authoring software, but from what my friends who used it
said at the time, I equate it to programs like HotDog, which I use to
develop Web pages. With this software, I don't have to know the HTML code
for a heading, I just have to choose the heading level I want from the
options in HotDog and the program puts in the correct code for me. I guess
if you use the software to create a program, you are the author of the
program. As others have said, "authoring" seems, in the computer industry,
to imply more than writing text for software. In some contexts it refers to
writing code and, more recently, pulling together (if not creating)
everything in a multimedia software program.
Pamela Owen
Nighthawk Communications
Reston, Virginia, USA
E-mail: Nighthawk1 -at- mindspring -dot- com
"Life is like Sanskrit read to a pony"
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