DIFF

ERE
NCE
S

Oral discourse

Written discourse

The sentences are short and

simple
Is not less organized, it has its
own kind of complexity
Less lexical, content words tend
to be spread out over a number
of clauses.
It has lacks organization and is
ungrammatical because is
spontaneous.
Contains more uncompleted
and reformulated sentences.
Topics can be changed
Speakers may interrupt and
overlap.
Contains more repetition,
hesitations and redundancy.
Has many pauses and fillers.

It is more structurally
complex and more
elaborate.
Has a high level of
nominalization.
Tends to have longer nouns
groups.
Writing is more explicit
depending on the situation.
Writing is more
decontextualized because
speech depends on a shared
situation and background for
interpretation.
It is planned
Can be edited
Explains everything in detail
with more information.