Learn English – What’s the difference between “write” and “write out”

differencesmeaning

I'm trying to get the difference between the verb write and the phrasal verb write out.

For instance.

I wrote out my CV.

I wrote my CV.

As far as I'm concerned, they both have the same meaning..

Best Answer

My answer will be for U.S. English.

Let's say I'm giving someone instructions:

I want you to write out a list of possible solutions to your problem.

This means I want you to take some ideas that are in your head, and go to the trouble of putting them down on paper. Implicit in this sentence is the assumption that if I am not quite explicit, the person will probably not bother writing anything down. I am imagining saying this to one of my children.

I can't imagine saying this in the context of creating a CV. For a CV, I suppose I might say

Please write up a draft of your CV and I'll help you format it.

The copying meaning mentioned in the comments sounds reasonable too, but in this day and age that doesn't seem very common to me.

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