Journal #3

The composition of a work or text depends on many different factors. The way that a text circulates through a community directly affects the way in which that text is composed, or written. A text will circulate differently depending on its medium. For example, a text that is posted online will circulate completely differently than a text that is written in say, the newspaper. Things like circulation, network, material and composition are all directly related to each other. If one changes, so will the others. The audience is another part of a work that changes how it is composed, and this also depends on medium and circulation. The composition of a work will depend on its audience, and the audience depends on the circulation, thus the composition of the work changes due to the circulation. All of these different aspects of the work are interrelated, and work together to make each work unique and different. Two works could have similar content but could be circulated differently, or have a different material, and this would make the works very different. When a writer is composing a work or text, they cannot really know what the circulation will be like. The circulation is only discovered once the work is written and published, if that work will be punished. So even though the circulation can’t be known for sure when the work is written, the potential for circulation is a major factor in the work’s composition. A work will be written very differently if it is only meant to be read by say five people, compared to a work that is meant to reach thousands, or hundreds of thousands of people. A postcard for example, will be written very differently than say an article in the New York Times. These two works have very different audiences and circulations, and these two things affect the composition greatly.