Context: When comparing different documents, or "witnesses", of a single, original text, the observed differences are called variant readings, or simply variants or readings. It is not always apparent which single variant represents the author's original work. The process of textual criticism seeks to explain how each variant may have entered the text, either by accident (duplication or omission) or intention (harmonization or censorship), as scribes or supervisors transmitted the original author's text by copying it. The textual critic's task, therefore, is to sort through the variants, eliminating those most likely to be un-original, hence establishing a "critical text", or critical edition, that is intended to best approximate the original. At the same time, the critical text should document variant readings, so the relation of extant witnesses to the reconstructed original is apparent to a reader of the critical edition. In establishing the critical text, the textual critic considers both "external" evidence (the age, provenance, and affiliation of each witness) and "internal" or "physical" considerations (what the author and scribes, or printers, were likely to have done).

Question: Different documents that represent the same original text are called what?
Answer: witnesses

Question: What are the variations in the text of witnesses known as?
Answer: variant readings, or simply variants or readings.

Question: How or why do variations enter a witness text?
Answer: either by accident (duplication or omission) or intention (harmonization or censorship)

Question: As well as representing the original text, a critical text must also do what?
Answer: document variant readings

Question: Why is it important to document variations in witness texts when compiling a critical text?
Answer: so the relation of extant witnesses to the reconstructed original is apparent to a reader of the critical edition.

Question: Identical documents that represent different text are called what?
Answer: Unanswerable

Question: What are the similarities in the text of witnesses known as?
Answer: Unanswerable

Question: When do variations enter a witness text?
Answer: Unanswerable

Question: What is the fourth way the textual critic considers evidence?
Answer: Unanswerable

Question: What is the fifth way the textual critic considers evidence?
Answer: Unanswerable