Part 2: oral or written?

The English we use when we speak is not always acceptable or appropriate for the sort of formal writing needed at university. Some of the following statements are often used in spoken English but are not appropriate in written English.

Task 8. Identify which statements you would use in spoken or written English.

1. They should have planned what they were doing in advance.

A) Spoken B) Written

2. They were working while ten o'clock.

A) Spoken B) Written

3. Many people cannot get their heads around this idea.

A) Spoken B) Written

4. They had been planning to go but found they were unable to do so.

A) Spoken B) Written

5. The results of the experiment were great, incredible.

A) Spoken B) Written

6. They were working very hard.

A) Spoken B) Written

7. They ought to have read the book by now.

A) Spoken B) Written

8. What sort of idea is that!

A) Spoken B) Written

9. He has jumped over the wall and fell flat on his face.

A) Spoken B) Written

10. The results of the experiment were dodgy.

A) Spoken B) Written

11. Many people who work full time take their snap with them, rather than buying sandwiches.

A) Spoken B) Written

12. This idea does not seem to be based on evidence.

A) Spoken B) Written

How aware are you of the difference?

Task 9. Compare two groups of features of written and spoken languages. Find matches among them.

Complete the table.

SPEECH	WRITING

Group 1

1) Universal, everybody acquires it.

2) Language has dialect variations that represent a region

3) The voices (pitch, rhythm, stress) and the bodies are used to communicate a message.

4) Pauses and intonation are used.

5) Pronounced.

6) Often spontaneous and unplanned.

7) There are immediate audiences who nod, interrupt, question and comment.

8) Usually informal and repetitive.

9) Simpler sentences connected by lots of ands and buts.

10) The audience reactions are drawn on to know how or whether to continue

11) The attitudes, beliefs, and feelings of the audience can be gauged by their verbal and non-verbal reactions.

Group 2

A) Must consider what and how much their audience needs to know about a given topic.

B) Often solitary in their process

C) More complex sentences with connecting words like however, who, although, and in addition.

D) More formal and compact. It progresses more logically with fewer explanations and digressions.

E) A delayed response from audiences or none at all and have only one opportunity to convey their message, be interesting, informative, accurate and hold their reader’s attention

F) Planned and can be changed through editing and revision before an audience reads it.

G) Spelled

H) Punctuation is used.

I) The words on the page are reliable to express meaning and ideas.

J) More restricted and generally follows a standardised form of grammar, structure, organization, and vocabulary.

K) Not everyone learns to read and write.

Task 10. Compare two texts and say which belongs to written and to spoken language. Prove your answer.

1. My helpful friend, perhaps not realizing that I was serious, began laughing. Sue roared all the harder as my situation became more difficult. She claimed I looked funny, clinging there screaming. I realized that she was laughing. Because she was incapable of acting: the situation must have been greatly disturbing to her, and so she treated it as if it were another situation.

2. The worst part about it was I had a friend Sitting up here and she’s saying “ha ha”… And I was saying “Go get the police… go Get someone”…I later learned that there are some people who do that in the face of disaster…I mean they just start cracking up as opposed to crying.

Task 11. If you were making an oral presentation or writing an academic assignment, you would consider your audience and adjust your style accordingly. Range the following characteristics of your audience that will influence your:

• choice of vocabulary

• timbre of voice

• sentence structure

• tempo of speech

• appearance

• the kind of evidence you use to support your thesis

• the tone

• manner of behavior

• the kind of language

Task 12. Read the text and compare your results