Hints:
A character are things like A, 1, and 3 and can be stored in ONE byte.
Words are like 10 and APPLE which CANNOT be stored in one byte.
To make a word you'd want to combine all your characters.
There is some serial basics write ups on this site, use search, that you'd want to read up on.
serial basics <<< a link!! clicky clicky. A link to serial basics thingy.