Journalists not writers?

[Teresa Edgerton]

Dann is right. Such criticism is also likely to get too political, which we definitely do not want.

 

[DannMcGrew]

Dann is right. Such criticism is also likely to get too political, which we definitely do not want.

Thank you, Teresa

 

[tinkerdan]

Maybe some one is confusing terms.
I would submit that they aren't authors--or at least shouldn't be.
They are writers, though, by definition.

 

[.matthew.]

They are writers, though, by definition.

Even the ones that only write lists?

 

[DannMcGrew]

Maybe some one is confusing terms.
I would submit that they aren't authors--or at least shouldn't be.
They are writers, though, by definition.

What then is your definition of an author? and help me to understand "at least shouldn't be"

Oxford defines as " A writer of a book, article, or document. "

 

[Steve Harrison]

I dislike the pretentious term, 'author,' and only use it when I feel self-important.

OK, I probably us it a lot.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Among creative writing groups, the word "writer" appears to used specifically as short-hand for "fiction writer"- which should hopefully not encompass journalists and academics.

 

[Ashley R]

Both novelists and journalists are writers. One writes fiction, the other non-fiction.

 

[Margaret Note Spelling]

What's the standard for calling someone a "writer"? When I was five I wrote badly-spelled My Little Pony fanfiction. Absolute mess, but I'd like to think I was a writer for it, given that the act of creative expression was going on. Am I a better writer now than I was then? Again, I'd like to think so.

But then try to apply that to any first-grade book report or child's letter. Technically, the child is writing words. But everyone does that at some point in their lives, and so the term writer isn't very useful if you try to use it in the absolute technical sense. So where is the line? To call someone an actual "writer," do they simply have to hit a certain standard of quality? Or maybe time and energy spent at it? Intention to write? Getting paid for it? (That would exclude a lot of us, I think, including me.) Who's calculating this (and can he be bribed? )

Or is it, perhaps, up to the person themselves to decide?

"What is it you do?"--"I'm a writer."
"So, I've heard you're a writer!"--"Nah, I write the odd chess article, but I'm not what you'd call a writer."

 

[Parson]

The real problem is in the defining of the terms and the understandings of those definitions.

So.... if writers are authors of fiction, then journalists are not writers. (Or shouldn't be in their day job.)
But, if writers are people who creatively put words together to promote understanding and/or enjoyment than journalists are unequivocally writers.

So, I believe that if we would agree on a definition of who a writer is, then the question of whether journalists are writers will arise organically from that definition.

 

[tinkerdan]

If this is an attempt to define...

So.... if writers are authors of fiction, then journalists are not writers. (Or shouldn't be in their day job.)
But, if writers are people who creatively put words together to promote understanding and/or enjoyment than journalists are unequivocally writers.

I'm afraid we wont get too far with definition until we have a lengthy discussion.

Being a writer doesn't necessitate creativity for enjoyment although it would be recommended that they do promote understanding.
There a plenty of writers who write technical material- manuals; scientific papers; journals; reviews and the list goes on and on(sometime but not always entertaining as much as informative-in fact often when attempting to make them too entertaining they distract from the message).
I'm sure if we pull out dictionaries and start making a list of definitions we might have something to start with.
It might take further time to come to a consensus of which parts to cherry pick or if we should include the entire definition.

writ·er /ˈrīdər/
noun
noun: writer; plural noun: writers
a person who has written a particular text.
"the writer of the letter"
a person who writes books, stories, or articles as a job or regular occupation.
"the distinguished travel writer Freya Stark"
a person who writes in a specified way.
"Dickens was a prolific writer"
a composer of musical works.
"a writer of military music"
Computing
a device that writes data to a storage medium.
Stock Market
a broker who makes an option available for purchase or sells options.
a person who has a specified kind of handwriting.
"neat writers"
historical•British
a scribe.
archaic•British
a clerk, especially in the navy or other government offices.


au·thor /ˈôTHər/
noun
noun: author; plural noun: authors
a writer of a book, article, or report.
"he is the author of several books on the subject"
someone who writes books as a profession.
"my favorite authors are Kurt Vonnegut and Aldous Huxley"
the writings of a professional author.
"I had to read authors I disliked"
an originator or creator of something, especially a plan or idea.
"the authors of the peace plan"

verb
verb: author; 3rd person present: authors; past tense: authored; past participle: authored; gerund or present participle: authoring
be the author of (a book or piece of writing).
"she has authored several articles on wildlife"
be the originator of; create.
"the concept has been authored largely by insurance companies"

 

[Parson]

If this is an attempt to define...

It was no so much an attempt to define as it was a summary of the way I saw the argument shaping up. It seemed like there was a lot of cross talk relying on a certain definition of the word, which was not universally agreed upon.

Your definition certainly is much closer to a comprehensive linguistic definition than what was being used in the discussion but serves to show us that we hadn't even begun to delve into the complexity of the original question.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Not, of course, that it is really up to us here to set the definition of what a writer is. For purposes of our discussions, maybe, but otherwise there are dictionaries, etc. for that sort of thing. And I think that all of those are in agreement that a journalist is indeed a writer, and also an author.

Really, "author" describes a person's relationship to a particular piece of writing. It sounds snootier, and people think of it as the more exalted term, but it can apply as well to someone who writes one thing and never again—but they will forever be the author of that one thing—as to someone who writes consistently for years. So I don't really have a high opinion of that word. (But the world doesn't revolve around my opinions, and other people think otherwise.)

Sometimes, the amount of writing I do these days, I feel like I hardly deserve to call myself a writer. But I remain a mere author, because I did write those books back in the day.

 

[DannMcGrew]

Back in the day, a pretentious woman who had published one small self-realization book asked me, "What do you do?"
"I'm a journalist."
She sniffed and replied, "Well anyone can keep a diary."

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I hope you snubbed her right back. Although maybe she wasn't worth the trouble.