This difference is reflected in two words coined long ago. An early term for one who spoke was a “rhetor,” where rhetoric is the art of persuasion. Speaking is interactive. You engage your audience, responding to their reactions. An oral document is, in this sense, distinctly interactive. This is in contrast to the word “author,” which is associated with a set of words affirming the self, derived from the prefix “auth” and “auto,” as in the word “authentic” where something is rightly linked to a particular agent and “automotive,” a self-powered vehicle.
