The purpose of this report is to outline the differences between speech and writing in different contexts. The Shifting Relationships Between Speech and Writing. Shifting Relationships Between Speech and Writing 285 about, and from the tendency in speech to rely on concrete and experiential modes of discourse. Examines the cognitive processes associated with speech and writing. As Havelock emphasizes, writing helps to separate the knower from the known. Although speech and writing are the main modes of language, both are not always used. College Composition and Communication, v36 n3 p283-303 Oct 1985. CORE is a not-for-profit service delivered by the Open University and Jisc . Complex vs Simple The structure of an essay and a speech might be similar but the tone and choice of words is vastly different. Elbow, Peter. This contrast between the two media is reinforced when we turn to the sto- While both the speech writer and the essay writer communicate information to a live audience or reading audience, the steps the writers go through to create the final version require varying methods, such as the choice of Discover our research outputs and cite our work. Writing a speech and writing an essay are two different experiences. Speech and writing serve different purposes and can be understood by examining important differences between the two. An essay is written to be read by people whereas a speech is written to be delivered by a speaker with an audience listening to him. Writing about CORE? In this article we look at the main differences between a speech and the written word.