a-

1- T H EN A T U R EA N D P U R P O SO
E FW R I T I N G

! accountcertainsituationsin whichthe spokenlanguageis used,suchas

telephoning and lecturing.
H Althoughwritingis clearlymuchmoredependenton how effectively
usethe linguisticresourcesof the language
we
!-- concludethat all the advantages
(see1.4.2),it wouldbe wroneto
areon the sideof speech.While it is tru! that
U in writingwe havethe taskof organising
our meaningasexplicitaspossible
our sentences carefullyso asto make
withoutthe helpof feedbackfrom the
l--
r+
reader,on the otherhandwe do not normallyhaveto write quickly:we can
rewrite and reviseour sentencesuntil we are satisfiedthat we haveexpressed
l-.
r--.J
'our
meaning.Equally,the readeris in a moreprivilegedpositionthanthe
listenerto someextent:he canreadat his own paceand rereadasoften ashe
!-:.- likes.In thisway, then,someof the disadvantages of communicating through
H the writtenmediumareoffset.

!--- SPEECH WRITING

l- 1 Takesplacein a context,which 1 Createsits own contextand
l-- often makesreferencesclear(e.g.
'
fhatth i ng over th ere'I
t h e r e f o r eh a st o b e f u l l y e x p l i c i t

1-:
H 2 S p e a k ea r n d l i s t e n e r ( si n)
c o n t a c t I. n t e r a cat n d e x c h a n q e
roles
2 R e a d e rn o t p r e s e n ta n d n o
i n t e r a c t i o np o s s i b l e

1-.-
1-- 3 U s u a l l yp e r s o na d d r e s s e d
soecific
is 3 Readernot necessarilyknown to
writer
1- 4 l m m e d i a t e f e e d b a cgki v e na n d 4 N o i m m e d i a t ef e e d b a c kp o s s i b l e .
L- expected
( a ) v e r b a l :q u e s t i o n sc, o m m e n t s
Writer may try to anticipate
r e a d e r ' sr e a c t i o n sa n d
t- . . . m u r m u r s g, r u n t s
(b) non-verbal:facial
incorporatethem into text

t-- expressions

l-=.- 5 S p e e c hi s t r a n s i t o r yI.n t e n d e dt o 5 W r i t i n gi s p e r m a n e n tC
. a nb e

1- b e u n d e r s t o o di m m e d i a t e l vl .f
not, listenerexpectedto interact
rereadas often as necessarvand
at own soeed

t- S e n t e n c eo s f t e ni n c o m p l e t ea n d 6 Sentencesexpectedto be
L
LJ.
s o m e t i m e su n g r a m m a t i c a l .
H e s i t a t i o nas n d p a u s e sc o m m o n
c a r e f u l l yc o n s t r u c t e da,n d l i n k e d
a n d o r g a n i s e dt o f o r m a t e x t
a n d u s u a l l ys o m e r e d u n d a n c y
l- and repetition

l_ 7 Rangeof devices(stress, D e v i c e st o h e l p c o n v e ym e a n i n g
L
V
i n t o n a t i o np, i t c h ,s p e e d ) t oh e l p
c o n v e ym e a n i n g .F a c i a l
a r e p u n c t u a t i o nc, a p i t a l sa n d
u n d e r l i n i n g( f o re m p h a s i s ) .
L expressions,body movements
a n d g e s t u r e sa l s ou s e df o r t h i s
S e n t e n c eb o u n d a r i e sc l e a r l y
indicated
pu rpose
l--
t-
l-
L-
L-
-