Writing and speaking letters and messages

Twelve participants composed written and spoken letters under various conditions. In the first five experiments they were told which letters to write and which letters to speak. In the last three experiments they could choose their method of composition. Results showed that speaking required only 35–75% of the time that writing did. Written and spoken letters were rated as about equally effective, being characterized more by their similarities than by their differences. When participants could choose a method, they did not always select the method that they said they would under those circumstances. A key theoretical result was that time spent planning was not a constant amount in both methods, but rather a constant ratio. Planning time was about two-thirds of total composition time, regardless of letter complexity. © 1982, Academic Press Inc. (London) Limited. All rights reserved.