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Introduction
1. Linguistic features of written language
2. Functions of written language
3. Typographical implications of the written language
4. Grammatical features of written language: Syntactic and lexical features
5. Rhetorical analysis of a text. Routines affecting different kinds of texts
5.1. Genres: Narrative, descriptive procedural, and argumentative
6. Conclusion
7. Didactic justification
7. Bibliography

Within this topic, I am going to deal with written communication. In order to make my presentation more effective, I am
going to divide the topic into five different sections. First, I will start by giving an overview of the main linguistic features
of written language, and the principal function of written language in comparison with spoken language. Then, we will
move on to the typographical implications of the written language and how they can affect a text. Furthermore, we will
talk about the syntactical and lexical features and the routines that can affect the different kinds of text. Then, I will
continue talking about how all these aspects affect us in relation to the different textual genres we can find.

We live in what can be called a “literate society", a society that uses language as a way of communication. This wide
range of literacy implies that a reasonably large proportion of older children and adults in the community use language in
written as well as spoken form. Speaking and listening come naturally, children acquire these abilities in normal
circumstances. However, reading and writing have to be formally taught and are usually difficult stages in the process of
linguistic instruction. Children do not often understand the need for a secondary communication strategy, which they do
not use at all, and which has a lot of external regularities and formal constraints that make it more difficult to handle.

At this point the difficulties are twofold: being able to conform to an external standard which is full of apparently studied
rules; and secondly, being able to transfer this new code to a new form of communication which also offers a lot of
difficult rules which have to be followed. Learning how to read and write is probably the most fundamental step in a
child's education, as it will be the basis for future instruction.

Speech and writing are not alternative processes in the act of communication; we cannot use both ways of
communication indistinctly. Speech is more natural since the vocal organs are part of our body, whereas writing skill
demands some theoretical comprehension of the language process. Speech is used for casual situations, whereas writing
tends to be used for more formal purposes.

After this introduction, we are going to move on to describe the written language.

The writing system should be capable of representing all the possible wordings of a person's thoughts. The basic
requirements to produce good writing are the following:

 Provide a codified expression for the majority of elements in the language (i.e., each idea or element must have
a written form)
 Provide the means for the creation of expressions for elements that are not already codified (i.e., neologisms,
borrowings)

This implies that a language must have a spelling system which is adaptable to any new situation, but, at the same time, a
system which is fixed and recognizable for the majority of speakers and writers of that language.

When comparing writing and speech, we can observe that many of the features of the former cannot be embodied in
writing, for example, prosodic and paralinguistic features. These are difficult to represent in writing because they do not
belong to any particular point in the linear representation of speech.
From the production point of view, both systems are completely different. The speaker is always under pressure to
continue his/her speech while checking the hearer's reaction to his/her words in order to organize the message. The
writer may look over, pause with no fear of interruption, carefully choose a particular word in the dictionary, etc. The
obvious disadvantage is the writer cannot monitor the addressee's reaction.

Functions of the written language

Writing appears as a response to the needs that arise as a result of cultural changes. People living in hunting and
gathering communities tend to form small, mobile groups. Their social institutions or cultural knowledge is transmitted
orally, with no need, therefore, to have permanent records. When these communities settle down their organization
changed in many ways: the supply of food began to be regular, the population increased, there came the specialization of
labor, power structures arose, wealth was distributed and commerce began. Language at this point had to exist, the rules
had to be accessible to all the citizens and could not only occur when the possessor of the rules wished to. The process
(speech) had to be transformed into a product (text). This is in fact one of the reasons for the appearance of written
language.

Very soon the new way of communication was used to satisfy some primary function demands: making property,
collecting taxes, recording payments, astronomical and calendrical records, religion, literature, etc. Writing soon took
over the role of keeping cultural records, and the idea of education and instruction began in this way.

Nowadays, there are still many people in the world who are illiterate or else, who know how to read and write but are
unable to transform the mechanics of literacy into semantically meaningful information. This situation is what we
describe as functional illiteracy.

In our culture reading is regarded as a pleasant activity, although few people engage in reading as such. As adults, we
spend more time than we think reading for different purposes, we could classify the purposes of reading into the
following categories:

 Reading for actions, like signs, product labels and instructions, on recipes…
 Reading for information, such as newspapers, affairs magazines, public notices…
 Reading for entertainment, such as comics, fiction books, poetry and drama…

·When we turn to writing, we can observe that many people write very little. The age at which people usually write more
frequently is in the educational period, after this, people stop writing and the general performance of the average person
tends to be very poor in this respect.

Up to now, we have considered the written text as an immobile whole. However, it is well known that a text may be
presented in different ways and that the appreciation depends on the presentation. It would be therefore naïve to say
that in our culture what counts is the content of a text rather than the form. Therefore, a text (the content) can be
presented with different type-face, on different sizes of paper, in one or two columns, but it is still the same test. Titles,
chapter headings, subdivisions, and sub-headings, indicate how the author wants to organize his message.

Typographical variety like the use of italics, capitals, bold, etc. contributes to the elaboration of a complex text in which
the ideas have to be described according to different categories or degrees of importance. For example, in lineation,
poets who design their poems in different shapes like fountains making the surface impression combined with the
meaning of the words indicate how important the external shape of a text can be.

The spoken text also has to conform to certain norms depending on the situation. If you have to complain about a faulty
service it is better if you don’t start by insulting the person.

In other cases, the writer may deliberately exploit the resources, these variations must be considered part of the text.
This is especially clear in variations of spelling. We assume that words have a standard spelling in a language and that any
voluntary variation hides an intention:

E.G.: PLEZ COKE IF AN RNSR IS NOT REQID

Any standard reader will immediately realize that the author wants to give meaning beyond the words.

Let's continue now with this essay talking about the description of grammatical features of written language. First on
syntactic features to continue with the analysis of lexical ones.
 The main feature is the fact we can see it. We can see the beginning and the end of a text. We can see its organization,
punctuation, chapter, paragraphs… When we think of the study of language we immediately think of language in terms of
the result of the creative process that has reached a final, perfect end.

The only way to explain the syntactic features of comparing them with spoken language:

 In written language, we can find a large set of meta-lingual markers which mark the relationship between
clauses ( that, besides, when, however)
 In written language, there is the need to be more explicit and clearer because the text will be permanent and
because the reader is not present to ask for clarification. There is, therefore, a large number of “rhetorical
organizers” which order the logical sequence.
 In written language, we find rather heavily remodified noun phrases. In spoken language, this is more difficult
because the speaker does not have time to think in advance, so the tendency is to have more verbs predicated
by one complement or element with one or two pre-modifiers.
 In written language, the order of elements tends to be quite fixed in an S+V+O fashion
 In written language, we find more subordinated clauses that try to clarify ad organize the writer’s thoughts
 In written language emphasis is either marked by some typographical sign or by the use of syntactic features
such as cleft sentences.

As regards lexical features of written language, they are the following:

 Accuracy in the use of vocabulary: try to use a wide range of lexical items so as to avoid redundancy
 Lexical density: Halliday made a distinction between written and spoken language. This feature can be described
as the ratio of lexical words which appear in a text when compared to the number of grammatical words. Written
language displays a much higher ratio of lexical items, mainly because the reader can stop and think about the
information presented in the text, whereas in spoken text information has to be presented more sparsely.
 Higher use of nominalized forms.

To conclude, we are going to describe the main types of text as classified from a rhetorical point of view.

Communication events take place in ways that follow a ritual or social constraints. Our mind stores the information
regarding the sequence of events which take place under one particular situation (e.g., when we go shopping we know
that we have to know whom the last person is queuing). We are able to store information regarding the organization,
length, and purpose of written texts.

The genres that appear in the classical literature on rhetoric, from Aristotle to modern-day rhetoricians, are those of
narrative, descriptive, procedural and suasive discourse. Language teachers have always followed this model, arriving, for
example, at the following types of rhetorical organization:

 This is what happened narrative

 This is the look/size/smell of something  description
 This is like/unlike something else comparison
 This may have/probably/certainly cause this  causal and evaluative
 This is what ought to be done problem solving, causes, predictions and suggestions.

 Narration is thought to be the most universal genre, all cultures have storytelling traditions. Researchers claim that
there is some basic universal structure for the narrative. Narratives usually begin with an “orientation”. This includes the
time of the narrative (once upon a time…), and the spatial setting (in a very far country…). In addition to this, the
character and their roles must also be set up (there lived an old lady called…).

Such openings reveal how syntax can be used to establish the story world:
 PresentativeThis is…
 Relative clauses …who liked chocolate…
 Initial adjuncts Long ago, in a far country, there lived….
Once the story is set up, the writer can begin to set up the storyline. Most stories involve a hero and a problem which he
tries to solve by creating a plan. Let's look at the elements that fulfil this script:
 Orientation  “Once upon a time, there were three Billy Goats”
 Goal  “who wanted to cross over the bridge to eat the grass on the other side”
 Problem “ But, under the bridge, lived an ugly old troll”
 The next part shows how the hero works out the problem. This usually consists of a set of action clauses arranged in a
temporal order. The final part where the problem is solved is called “resolution”. The last part brings the reader back to
the real world and is called the "coda" it often has morale at its end which summarizes the relevance of the story for the
readers. Although this has been exemplified with traditional folk-tales, this is also the structure in all the narratives.

 Description is very popular in second language teaching. There are different ways to describe something, but always
with a pre-established organization:
 External description normally follows a logical direction. The writer guides the reader’s mind to a holistic
view of the object, giving a good account of all its parts and organization.
 Functional descriptions are often used with instruments, and they are based on the tasks they may perform,
and their parts are usually described in this fashion.
 Psychological descriptions describe the feelings that something gives us. They could have any topic. Notice
that most descriptions will refer to the psychological effect of the object on the writer.

We find in descriptions are typically presentative with “there”, adjuncts locating the object, and stative verbs of looking,
seeming, being, etc.

 “How to” discourse. We are often called upon to explain how to accomplish some tasks. Much of the instructions
consist of "how to" discourse. Advice-giving can also be framed in procedural discourse. This kind of written text use
mainly structures with forms such as "in order to", "to", "so as to" and some other, which reflect the aim with which
something is done. Imperatives are also typical of a procedural text that informs the reader of how to do something.
 Argumentation has often been defined as the process of supporting or weakening another statement whose validity is
questionable or contentious. The structure is even more flexible than the rhetorical modes presented above. The
classical order includes the following steps.
- Introduction: “the purpose of my…”
- Explanation of the case under consideration: “there are two different approaches to this issue…”
- Outline the argument: "the difficult points are the following" The relationship between the different parts of the
argument is specified with elements pointing upwards or downwards n the text in what is called "discourse
deixis".
- Proofs supporting the argument: “as a matter of fact…; it cannot be forgotten…”
- Refutation: “Even though… it is obvious that….”
- Conclusion: “on the whole…”

The second pattern we can differentiate is giving "pros and cons". The difference is that if the author favours the idea
the structure would be pro-con-pro-con, but if the author rejects the proposal, the structure would be con-pro-con-
pro. The author must demonstrate that opposite views to his/her own are unacceptable.

 “One sided argument”. In this argumentative pattern, the author decides to present only one part of the discussion
with no counter-arguments to make the reader follow his/her ideas
 “Eclectic approach". With this pattern, the author selects for the reader some of the views on the subject, normally
the most outstanding ones so that the reader has easier access to the main trends in a particular issue.
 Opposition’s argument first, then the author’s argument. The author presents the arguments that he considers
erroneous and subsequently, the author's reasons are presented in such a way that they solve the shortcomings of the
opposing arguments. Some of the typical formulae of this pattern are for example "traditionally it has been
believed…" it seems to be a fact"
 “Other side questioned". This involves the questioning but not a direct refutation, of the opposition's argument. By
doing so, the reader will have the freedom to choose the most sensible idea in her/his opinion, although the doubts
presented by the author will probably make him/her adopt the author's view.

All these patterns show the intricate internal organization that argumentative discourse has, a fact which implies the
tremendous importance of this variety of discourse for the management of social and intellectual relationships.

Thus, now I have dealt with some of the different parts of my essay about written communication, I will move into the
final section dealing with the teaching of English as a foreign language. I should begin by saying that written
communication is one of the most important points in the learning of a language, in this case, the English language,
because it is one of the main skills. To put this content into practice in the classroom we must motivate the students not
only through simple writing but also through different creative activities where they can discover their skills themselves,
having previously given them the necessary resources for it. We can use different writing formats such as those
mentioned in this topic, argumentative, descriptions, narratives, and comparisons. All of them have to be worked in the
classroom in different ways, and we can also use new technologies to create different materials such as online recipe
books, blogs, stories and much more.

In conclusion, I would like to say that I have concentrated on the most general aspects of written communication and the
different types of written text we can find with its main characteristics. We have also been able to discover how to apply
these concepts and types of texts in the classroom with different activities, methods, and resources to achieve better
learning of the language in this case in the writing skill of the English language students.

Crystal, D. (2010). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Cambridge: CUP.

Ley Orgánica 3/2020, de 29 de diciembre, por la que se modifica la Ley Orgánica 2/2006, de 3 de mayo, de Educación
(LOMLOE)
Paltridge, B. (2012). Discourse analysis: An introduction. Bloomsbury Publishing