Oral & Written Communication: A Comprehensive Guide
Oral & Written Communication
What is Oral Communication?
The most frequent type of verbal communication, requiring no additional tools. Unlike writing, learning to speak is a natural part of human development.
Main Features:
- Ephemeral: Remains only if recorded, unlike written communication.
- Emotive & Spontaneous: Often disorderly, with sender and receiver exchanging roles.
- Immediate Rectification: Allows for instant correction and alternation between speaker and listener.
- Nonverbal Codes: Uses paraverbal (gestures, postures) and verbal (laughter, throat clearing, silences) cues to enhance meaning.
- Dialect Dependent: Reveals geographical origin, unlike standardized written language.
Both oral and written communication adapt to the specific context and formality, known as registers.
Types of Oral Communication
Oral discourse can be divided into two categories: planned (prepared) and spontaneous (unprepared).
Planned Oral Communication:
- Individual: Speeches, conferences
- Collective: Debates, assemblies, interviews
Spontaneous Oral Communication:
- Informal: Casual talks, games
- Formal: Interactions with strangers or superiors
Written Communication
Emphasis and Accentuation:
- Acute: Accents on words ending in a vowel.
- Grave: Accents on words ending in a consonant.
- Esdrújulas: Always accented.
Nouns and Noun Phrases:
Nouns denote things, beings, and abstract realities. A noun phrase (NP) has the following structure:
NP = Determiner + Noun + Modifiers
The determiner can be an article or adjective (possessive, demonstrative, indefinite, numeral, exclamatory, interrogative).
Polysemous Words:
Words with multiple meanings.
Newspaper Texts
Types of Newspaper Texts:
- News: Reports recent events.
- Features & Stories: Narrated events surrounding the news.
- Opinion: Editorials, opinions, letters to the editor, reviews, humor, interviews.
News Sources:
- News agencies
- Reporters
- Correspondents
- Archives and documentation services
News Structure:
- Headline
- Introduction
- Body
Other Journalistic Writing:
- Chronicle: Story of an event from the same place and time.
- Report: In-depth discussion of facts after thorough documentation.
Opinion in Newspaper Texts
Opinion pieces add subjective assessment to the narrative.
Common Opinion Genres:
- Editorial: Reflects the newspaper’s official view.
- Opinion Piece: Offers an individual’s interpretation of an event or issue.
- Letters to the Editor: Readers’ views and suggestions.
- Reviews: Critical assessment of cultural and entertainment works.
- Humor: Satirical commentary on current events.
- Interview: Dialogue between a journalist and a public figure.
Using “G” and “J”
Spelling confusion arises due to similar sounds before ‘e’ and ‘i’. This doesn’t occur with ‘a’, ‘o’, ‘u’.
Invariable Words: Adverbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions
Adverbs modify verbs, providing circumstantial information.
Types of Adverbs:
- Affirmation: Yes, also, certainly
- Negation: No, neither, never
- Doubt: Maybe, perhaps, possibly
- Place: Here, there, around
- Time: Yesterday, today, tomorrow, always
- Manner: Well, badly, slowly
- Quantity: Much, little, very, too
Conjunctions join words or phrases.
Compound Words
Formed by combining lexemes (e.g., cork + screw = corkscrew).
Using “H”
Used with words beginning with the diphthongs “hie”, “hue”. Derivatives retain the “h” (e.g., host = hostess).
Synonyms and Antonyms
Using a dictionary is recommended to expand vocabulary.
Picaresque Novel
Examples: Lazarillo de Tormes, Guzmán de Alfarache.