How to capture data of text area

Hello Experts,

I have added a text area to a home page using the tag as below

<textarea id="recipient_list" rows="5" cols="40" name="recipients"></textarea>

I expect this text area to be populated at runtime. I want to use the data entered in this text area in one of the methods. But I do not know how to capture the data.

Could you please help me by telling me the way that will make this data available for use in a method of implementation class?

Regards,

Prafful