Exploring Written and Oral Communication

Tanya Verma

Published On - Apr 10, 2025 10:38AM IST

Expressing your thoughts and ideas is the most common practice in your day-to-day life. Without communication, a human is like a dead person. There was a time when people used to convey their ideas through painting, pictures, or signs on the walls. In modern times, due to the advancement of technology, people use emojis, GIFs, and stickers for communication. Let’s understand it with an example. You must have heard about “Chai Pe Charcha”. It is a part of oral. There are various types of communication, i.e., written communication, oral communication, and symbolic communication. In this article, we will explore the advantages and disadvantages of written and oral communication.

Table of Content

⚖️What Is The Difference Between Oral And Written Communication?

Communication is all about conveying the message. There may be written or oral communication. Here you can see the difference between the two:

Pointers	Written communication	Oral communication
Medium	Written communication refers to the exchanging of information, ideas, thoughts, and messages in written form.	Oral communication refers to the exchanging of information, ideas, thoughts, and messages in oral form.
Legal validity	Written communication is valid legally.	Oral communication is not valid legally
Non-verbal Expressions	It does not include non-verbal expressions.	It includes non-verbal expressions
Feedback	Feedback may or may not be given immediately.	Immediate feedback or response.
Interaction	Written communication is less engaging and interactive than oral communication.	Oral communication is more engaging and interactive than written communication.
Economical	Non-economical as it requires paper, pen, devices	Economical
Skills	It requires writing skills	It requires speaking skills
Time	It takes a lot of time to write.	It is less time consuming. Speaking takes less time compared to writing.
Examples	Books, magazines, newspapers, pamphlets, reports, documents, etc.	Announcements, lectures, discussions, debates, daily conversations with family, etc.

📢What is Oral Communication?/Oral Communication Definition

oral-communication-vs-written-communication-exploring-written-and-oral-communication

Oral communication refers to the exchanging of information, ideas, thoughts, and thinking verbally. In other words, speech-based message transmission is referred to as oral communication. The most often used communication method in our daily life is oral communication.

Oral communication is different from written communication as it is based on speaking. The first form of communication we learn as a child is oral communication. First, we learn speaking, then we learn writing. A child develops writing skills later. When we meet with people, we interact with them. Talks about daily routine, or good experiences of life are all about oral communication. In short, oral communication is all about speaking. It is a real-time exchange of information between two or more persons through speaking.

🗣Oral Communication Examples

Here some examples of oral communication are given:

Examples	Description
Talking at home	Every day we woke up and started our day with greetings like saying “Good Morning” to our parents, and siblings. This is an example of oral communication. The whole day we talk with our family members and share our future plans, suggestions, etc. is a part of oral communication.
Office meetings	During office meetings, the team leader shares the feedback, necessary points, guides for the tasks, and gives updates on ongoing projects. Additionally, team members discuss their problems, doubts, and accomplishments, etc. are all the examples of oral communication.
Announcement	This is an interesting example of oral communication. In our day-to-day life, we hear announcements related to government policies, and initiatives referring to oral communication.
Teaching through lecture	It is delivered verbally. When a teacher delivers a lecture to their students related to any topic is another example of communication.
Calls to Customer Service	A consumer contacts a support helpline to report an issue with a product. The customer was reassured, given troubleshooting methods, and the agent listened.
Discussions	One more example of oral communication is group discussion. When two or more people exchange their ideas on any particular topic to conclude it is called a discussion.
Public speaking	One more example is also given here for oral communication, i.e., public speaking. Campaigning that we hear at the time of election is a kind of conveying a message through oral communication.

✨Advantages and Disadvantages of Oral Communication

There are many advantages and disadvantages of written communication, such as quick response, attentive listening, rapport building, encouraging team spirit, facilitating decision-making, etc. are the advantages of oral communication. Whereas poor retention, misunderstanding, lack of responsibility, etc. are some of the disadvantages of oral communication. In the given table you can see the advantages and disadvantages of oral communication in detail.

Advantages

Disadvantages

Oral communication works on a quick response feature of communication. It provides the chance to clear doubt immediately.
But, in oral communication, as immediate response is given to the messenger, it makes it clear that the listener is attentive to the message/talk being delivered.
It is said that the more you interact, the more you will build rapport with others. So oral communication is the best option for those who want to enhance interpersonal relations and rapport with others.
Another advantage of oral communication is that it facilitates decision-making. It is oral communication through which we discuss the matter and reach the final decision.
When we work with a team and collaborate with our colleagues to complete any task, it requires some positive words to encourage each other.

It is not easy to recall what we have discussed. While written things can be accessed at any time. That’s why written organizations keep a record of the meeting in the form of minutes.
Oral communication may create misunderstanding sometimes due to the unclarity of the message to be delivered to the desired audience.
Oral communication is a spoken form of expressing thoughts and ideas and has no record.

✍What is Written Communication?/Written Communication Definition

Here you can see the definition of written communication. Written communication refers to the exchanging of information, ideas, thoughts, and messages in written form. You might think we don’t communicate as much in writing, but you would be wrong. Written communication is what you are doing at the moment. Reading articles, responding to emails, or using instant messaging applications are forms of written communication.

In simple words, written communication is exchanging information and ideas in written language. Furthermore, written communication is all about sharing thoughts through a piece of paper, a screen that you can see and read. The message generated by written communication is for the long term.

📝Written Communication Examples

Various examples of written communication are as follows:

Examples	Description
Newspapers	It is a form of written communication. You can read national and international news through the newspapers.
Magazines	Different kinds of magazines like fashion magazines, cosmetics-related magazines, food-related magazines, and educational magazines.
E-mails	E-mails that you use for academic/corporate purposes are a way of communication with your teachers, peers, teams, organizations, etc.
Online articles	The article you are reading is also an example of written communication.
Books	Books are an interesting example of written communication. Books that you read in your school/college also come under written communication.
Newsletters	Companies or universities release newspapers from time to time (monthly or weekly) to make the target audience aware of the achievements, and highlights of the organization.

✅Advantages And Disadvantages Of Written Communication

There are many benefits of written communication, such as ease of preservation, ease of understanding, and serving as legal documents are the advantages of written communication. Whereas not good economically, time-consuming, lack of confidentiality, and delay in response are some of the disadvantages of written communication. You can see the advantages and disadvantages of oral communication in detail in the following table.

Advantages

Disadvantages

Written communication creates a lasting record of conversations. The documents are easy to preserve if they are in written form.
Good for content organization and editing.
It provides a clear and comprehensive grasp of the message to be conveyed. Written communication provides us with the facility to read the message many times until the recipient fully comprehends it.
Written communication is unambiguous.
Allows for communication over extended periods and distances.
The written form can be read and answered anytime.
Written communication makes it easier to share complex information.
You can access, review, and edit the document anytime.
Written communication can be extensively disseminated and reach a larger audience.

Written communication is not good economically as it requires paper, pen, ink, typewriters, printing machines and maintenance of machines.
It is expensive for a group of individuals to prepare and distribute the organization’s letters which is quite costly for any organization. Hence it is expensive.
Written communication is very time-consuming. Writing takes a lot of time and skills as compared to the oral delivery of messages.
Keeping the information confidential is not always possible in written communication which serves as one of the biggest disadvantages of written communication.
If the recipient of the message lives far at a distance and has any doubt that is required to be clear, the response is not spontaneous as there is a lack of immediate response. It requires a lot of time to encode and send a message.

💡Conclusion

Based on the discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of written and oral communication, it is concluded that both types of communication are necessary in our lives. Written communication has its advantages and disadvantages while oral communication has its advantages and disadvantages. It depends on the purpose for which communication is required. For example: for books, written communication is good, and for discussions oral communication is good.

❓Frequently Asked Questions(FAQ)

1. What are the advantages of written communication?

There are various advantages of written communication, such as clear and concise messages, ease of sharing info, documentation, good for mass communication, and forum making.

2. What are the disadvantages of written communication?

Time-consuming, not good economically, late response.

3. What are the advantages of oral communication?

Quick response, talking at home, rapport building, encouraging team spirit.

4. What are the disadvantages of oral communication?

Poor retention, misunderstanding, lack of responsibility.

5. Can written communication be legally binding?

Yes, written communication is legally binding.

6. Is oral communication more suitable for spontaneous conversations?

Yes, oral communication is more suitable for spontaneous conversations.

7. Does written communication require more precision than oral communication?

Yes, written communication requires more precision than oral communication.

8. What are the main characteristics of oral and written communication?

Characteristics of written communication are:

It is written.
It is valid legally.

Characteristics of oral communication are:

It is verbal.
It is not valid legally.

9. What are the types of written communication?

Books, magazines, newspapers, pamphlets, manuals, etc.

10. What is the difference between oral and written communication?

Written communication refers to the exchanging of information, ideas, thoughts, and messages in written form. Verbal communication refers to the exchanging of information, ideas, thoughts, and messages in oral form.