Java: Writer.write() and Writer.append() are the same; why do they both exist?

I've inherited some Java. I have lots of experience with other C-like languages, but I'm still fairly new to Java. In one function, my predecessor has used both the write() and append() methods of the Writer class, but I can't figure out why. And more generally, I can't figure out why both methods exist, because Oracle's doc says, An invocation of this method of the form out.append(c) behaves in exactly the same way as the invocation out.write(c) . Why do both methods exist? Do I need to care?