Erasure

Removal, usually of written or drawn marks by erasing ? rubbing, blotting, wiping, or scraping. The goal of erasure is typically to remove all traces of something, although one finds it practical to compromise at partial erasure. And, the scrambling of material recorded magnetically, as in the use of the delete key on a keyboard.Erasure is a subtractive redactedgesture.Additive gestures that obscure place material above the surface to be altered. Also see coat, collage, cover, decollage, distort.To redact is to conceal (text) from a document prior to its publication or release. Redacting is usually accomplished by covering sensitive areas with opaque pigment, or by removing these areas with scissors or knife. Here's an example: F.B.I. Director Robert S. Mueller met with Attorney General John Ashcroft on March 12, 2004, to ask if Ashcroft would approve a controversial domestic spying program for US President George W. Bush. Later, Mueller wrote some notes about the meeting. Months later, when these notes were to be published, they were extensively redacted. see thumbnail to rightA photo of that document.(pr. ə-RAY-shər)Also see camouflage, clean up, eraser, implied, palimpsest, solvent, and stain removal.