IELTS Triumph: Speaking vs Writing

What is the difference between speaking and writing?

If you are going to study at university you should by now know that the language used at university is different to that used in daily life. It is basically what people call Academic English, and it is why many people take the IELTS Academic test instead of the general test.

There are some key difference between speaking and writing at university too.
1. Speaking is more personal – Most of the time the person you are speaking to is right in front of you. Even if you don’t know them, you need to make small talk. This is why we use personal pronouns (me, you, we etc.) a lot more in speech.

In academic writing you do not know the people who are reading you work, so less personal pronouns are used. This is where you lose the passive a lot more, the person doing the action is not mentioned. ‘The research was completed’ instead of ‘I completed the research.’

2. Speaking is more interactive – What you say depends on who you are talking to, and often you leave out things you assume they already know. ‘At break I am going to the shop’, I didn’t tell you exactly which shop I am going to, because I believe you know which one. If the listener doesn’t know, which one they can ask if they want.

In academic writing you cannot know what the reader knows, and they can’t ask you, so you have to be detailed and explain yourself carefully.

3. Speaking has a time limit – I can read your writing anytime and just about anywhere, but speaking happens at a certain time and place. For this reason you need to be brief when you speak. That’s why we have so many contractions like ‘want to’ becoming ‘wanna’. We use short connectors too, ‘for this reason’ is more common in writing, and ‘so’ more common in speaking.

Try to remember these points when you are writing, you cannot just write down what you would say and hand it in.

IELTS Triumph