SPEAKING & WRITING CORRECTLY & CLEARLY

(ORAL & WRITTEN ENGLISH)

Are there differences between oral and written English?

ORAL ENGLISH

To speak with credibility and authority, the speaker needs to be aware and conscious of pronunciation, enunciation, intonation, articulation, diction, clarity, intensity, audibility, pauses, word crutches, word usage, syllable and word stress, and tone of voice.

We use simple and short words.  Avoid bombastic, pompous and verbose words so that we are not misunderstood and misconstrued.  Our message may be lost if the audience do not understand the meaning of the unfamiliar words we use.

Think before we speak.  Give a thought to what we are going to say and how to say it. Once spoken, words are lost.  We do not backtrack and correct on what we have uttered.

Pay more weightage to our vocal and verbal image, not just the visual image.

WRITTEN ENGLISH

In written communication, we have to pay particular attention to our grammar, spelling, sentence construction, word usage, paragraphs and punctuation.

When we write an article, others can scrutinise and criticise our written piece.  They have the convenience of time to read and reread it.

They have the luxury of putting down what they are reading when they come across an unfamiliar word e.g. ponceau, jussive, exordium, grab the dictionary, check the meaning of the word and resume reading.