English Reading Practice - 0017 Written Text and

Written and spoken texts have certain things in common: A person who wants something done uses language to get it done. The types of language that the speaker and the writer use, however, are different because distinct social activities are involved in the two types of texts. In the written text, wherein the writer has never met and will probably never meet the readers, the communication is one-way and consists to a large extent of neutral formulae. Thus, a distant and formal tone is appropriate for this kind of conventional exchange. Meanwhile, the communication in the spoken text is a two-way process in which the interlocutors are necessarily engaged in some kind of personal interaction and thus a different type of language behavior is used to maintain a relationship.