We use the term "digital writing" here rather than computers and writing, online writing, or other combinations of terms in part because we anchor writing practices to digital spaces. Digital writing is the art and practice of preparing documents primarily by computer and often for online delivery. Digital writing often requires attention to the theories and practices of designing, planning, constructing, and maintaining dynamic and interactive texts--texts that may wind up fragmented and published within and across databases. Texts that may, and often do, include multiple media elements, such as images, video, and audio.

Digital writing also reminds us of the very physical elements and interactions required to write. Digits not only refers to the zeros and ones that float in cyberspace and create online spaces, but also refers to the fingers we use to craft the writing translated to zeros and ones and then retranslated and fed to the screen through the software we use to interface digital spaces.

We frame digital writing and digital rhetoric by the emerging body of theory and knowledge about communication and writing in online environments, using digital technologies. Digital writing addresses the question of how writing and communication work in digital spaces.

Finally, we use the term digital writing because we would argue that today all writing is digital, and most writing requires weaving text, images, sound, video--working within and across multiple media, often for delivery within and across digital spaces.