Written communication serves separable purposes:

* Replicating speech, Archiving speech, and separating the acts of speaking and listening from each other. There are alternatives to written format.

* Speech that can be edited easily, until it is perfected.

* Speech that be sped up, slowed down, and jumped around with random access and search.

* Silent speech.

These features can be achieved with alternative technologies.

Written communication also has drawbacks. It is a lossy compression of spoken speech.