What's the Difference Between Electrical Drawings and Electrical Diagrams?

A schematic diagram shows the way functional blocks are connected together not always an indication of where the parts are in the real world. Here are assorted symbols

http://www.aaroncake.net/electronics/schem.htm

A component placement diagram shows where the parts are in the real world.

A printed circuit board layout shows where all the wires go to connect the parts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printed_circuit_board

A wiring diagram show the way parts are wired together in the real world, often with a wiring harness splayed out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circuit_diagram

For a building the diagram shows where all the parts are located in the building. and uses a different construction standard component symbol set than a schematic diagram.

Explore this site and follow links and it will answer most of your questuons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_wiring

Never a silly question...though some of our answers may well be ;)

Anyway, here's a stab from an architectural project engineer:

For the construction industry project bid documents, a Drawing is the final, signed and sealed document providing visual information, with or without notes, that compliment the specifications, which are generally standard word documents in a strict directive format.

As such, each "Drawing" will include border information, such as the project name, date of release, designer, company, copyright information, and titles.

Each Drawing will have a working space which may include reference information such as legends, general notes, and the Plans portion of the drawing set will include locations and overview plans for anything from a device to a room full of devices to a full building layout, and will generally be "to scale" so that cabling distances can be "taken off" for bidding and cost purposes, as well as showing actual device locations for quantity information.

Each Drawing in the Details section of the drawing set will typically have many "Diagrams," one for each functional circuit requiring any kind of clarification.

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Typically, no Diagrams are included for internal wiring that should be coming with a purchased device, such as internal relays, sensors, and circuits for an HVAC unit on the roof. Not to confuse things with reference to Diagrams noted below, but the contractors involved in terminating sensors and devices in the field will be directed to follow manufacturer's installation and wiring diagrams for reference, since these will be potentially quite different depending on which contractor is awarded the project, since each may quote his bid using completely different equipment manufacturers.
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On the bid document set Electrical Drawings, for instance, multiple items to activate a lighting circuit may be shown, such as occupancy sensors, manual switches, and photocells, which would have appropriate symbols representing each item along with the fixtures themselves. This may be done for each lighting circuit individually, or may include only one such Diagram as a "typical" with a note that the contractor should apply this typical diagram concept to each similar location in the project.

Similar Diagrams may be included for any field-installed devices that are not part of a packaged, factory system, such as motion and biometric sensors for security, or lighting level sensors for daylight harvesting with dimmable ballasts.

If there is space, many of these Diagrams may be placed on the same Drawing. To make them fit, Diagrams can be adjusted as far as the scale will allow and still be readable, since the connections shown between devices are functional in nature, rather than "to scale."

Hope that helps.