Writing Constructs
Writing
constructs are perceptions about writing that many people see as
invertible and definite "rules" to writing rather than as changing and
mailable according to the situation at hand. One example of a construct
related to writing is the old adage that you must start an introduction
with an 'attention grabber'. Certainly, some attention grabbers might be
necessary given specific situations, but I can think of many situations
where starting with an 'attention grabber' is not a great idea. For
example, a few years back a close friend to my family passed away, and
his family requested that I write the obituary. When I went about
writing the obituary, I didn't think up a catchy 'attention grabbing'
intro. I read through many obituaries and replicated the pattern of that
particular genre. Likewise, when I recently bought a new piece of
furniture that required assembly, I wasn't disappointed that the opening
paragraph to my instructions didn't have an 'attention grabber'.
There are many other constructs related to writing. I remember being told that a paragraph should have five to seven sentences, and I also remember constructing thesis statements with three parts. Whether it is related to perceived rules or taught ways to write, what we might think of as rules are actually constructs. Defining rules more accurately as constructs allows us to see that language usage and acceptable writing conventions are created rather than inevitable. Many writing constructs are culturally influenced but remain hard to notice because cultural analysis is difficult unless one steps away from the home culture for a significant period of time.
In standard American English, you are often taught to be concise and precise in delivering your point. This is reminiscent of the three part five paragraph essay that so many of you are familiar with. In many other parts of the world, there are other writing conventions that dictate what is or is not appropriate for different writing situations. Your task here is to research some different approaches to writing that are NOT typical of standard American English. Certainly, if you traverse the Net, you should find some sources that showcase how writing happens in different cultures.
In a brief report (1-2 pages), you should identify at least two writing constructs that are different from conventional American English constructs. These constructs must come from a different writing culture than Standard American English. Certainly, other places around the world will practice different styles.Your report should explore how the culture shapes the practice of writing and underscore the relationship between culture and writing practice. You should cite at least two sources in your brief report. Be careful of making sweeping generalizations in your piece. Though there is evidence that Americans prefer a direct and straightforward approach for communication, there are many circumstances where American writers are neither direct nor straightforward. Beyond simply summarizing these outside sources, you should incorporate some of your own analysis into this posting.
As a starting point, you might want to view this series of videos presented by Oregon State University:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quI0vq9VF-c\
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koViA1gqiUs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0wbDcfltIU
You can use these videos as a starting point, but you must use other sources for this assignment. You have freedom regarding which culture or country you want to investigate. If your background is multicultural, you can use personal experiences, but you must still have at least two outside sources for this assignment.
There are many other constructs related to writing. I remember being told that a paragraph should have five to seven sentences, and I also remember constructing thesis statements with three parts. Whether it is related to perceived rules or taught ways to write, what we might think of as rules are actually constructs. Defining rules more accurately as constructs allows us to see that language usage and acceptable writing conventions are created rather than inevitable. Many writing constructs are culturally influenced but remain hard to notice because cultural analysis is difficult unless one steps away from the home culture for a significant period of time.
In standard American English, you are often taught to be concise and precise in delivering your point. This is reminiscent of the three part five paragraph essay that so many of you are familiar with. In many other parts of the world, there are other writing conventions that dictate what is or is not appropriate for different writing situations. Your task here is to research some different approaches to writing that are NOT typical of standard American English. Certainly, if you traverse the Net, you should find some sources that showcase how writing happens in different cultures.
In a brief report (1-2 pages), you should identify at least two writing constructs that are different from conventional American English constructs. These constructs must come from a different writing culture than Standard American English. Certainly, other places around the world will practice different styles.Your report should explore how the culture shapes the practice of writing and underscore the relationship between culture and writing practice. You should cite at least two sources in your brief report. Be careful of making sweeping generalizations in your piece. Though there is evidence that Americans prefer a direct and straightforward approach for communication, there are many circumstances where American writers are neither direct nor straightforward. Beyond simply summarizing these outside sources, you should incorporate some of your own analysis into this posting.
As a starting point, you might want to view this series of videos presented by Oregon State University:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quI0vq9VF-c\
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koViA1gqiUs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0wbDcfltIU
You can use these videos as a starting point, but you must use other sources for this assignment. You have freedom regarding which culture or country you want to investigate. If your background is multicultural, you can use personal experiences, but you must still have at least two outside sources for this assignment.
Writing constructs have been shoved down our throats ever since we learned how to read and write. From the five paragraph essay to the transition, our English teachers and the school itself gave us a formula in which ti write the “right” way. After getting out of the public education system I became aware of these constructs and ignorantly surmised it was the same for everyone around the world. That view could not be any farther from the truth. Culture effects the constructs in which people are taught to write. An example of culture affecting writing constructs would be the way Koreans are taught how to write their essays. In the article A Comparison of Rhetorical Styles in Korean and American Student Writing, Kyeongja conducts a study in which he gives American and Korean students essay prompts and he compares the two writings together to check for similarities and differences. From comparing the two styles Kim surmised that unlike Americans, who have been taught to state the main purpose at the beginning of the their essay, the Korean students have been taught to introduce facts in the foremost part of your essay then at the end you should present your main idea or your thesis. Not all Koreans write like this but after this study its believed that schools in Korea teach their students to write their essays in that manner. Another example of different cultures influencing different writing constructs would be the teachings of teachers in Chinese schools. According to the article Raising Students ‘Awareness of Cross-Cultural Contrastive Rhetoric in English Writing via an E-Learning Course, three university professors go through the difference between writing constructs taught in English and Chinese schools. One thing the professors noticed in the Chinese constructs is similar to that of the constructs held in Korean schools. Both of these constructs want the student to introduce facts before introducing their main point which is usually near the end of the paper. The Chinese also have a writing construct in which they construct their paragraphs in a different way than is taught in American schools. The Chinese have a four paragraph structure named “Start-Sustain-Turn-Sum”. This four step process goes as follows : the first paragraph or start helps the reader figure out what the topic is. The next paragraph or sustain helps reinforce what the topic is. The third paragraph or turn is where the writer looks at the topic from a different point of view other than their own. The sum or conclusion paragraph wraps the essay up by showing how the authors opinion on the topic itself. This is different form the American taught writing construct of writing what your view or point is on the topic in the first paragraph and then teasing it out through the essay. This construct is believed to originate from ancient Chinese poetry. After talking about other cultures constructs I hope people will begin to understand that writing can take many forms. These writing constructs aren’t conducive for every person living in these countries (e.g. not all Chinese people write in a 4 paragraph structure) but rather it is what is taught in primary school by school systems who want you to write in a very specific and certain way
ReplyDeleteBibliography
Kim, K. (n.d.). A Comparison of Rhetorical Styles in Korean and American student Writing. Retrieved from www.trinity.edu: http://www.trinity.edu/org/ics/ICS%20Issues/ICS%20VI/ICS-VI-1--%20Kim.pdf
Xing, M., Wang, J., & Spencer, K. (2008, June). Raising Students'Awareness of Cross-Cultural Contrastiv eRhetoric in English Writing via an E-Learning Course. Retrieved from http://llt.msu.edu/vol12num2/xingetal.pdf
It goes without saying that constructs are different in every culture. Here in America we are taught the traditional 4-5 paragraph essay, to use big vocabulary words, and have short concise sentences. While all of these may or may not be the most effective way to write an essay they are easily verified as writing constructs in America.
ReplyDeleteIn other parts of the world, like Japan for example, they have far different writing constructs then we have. In the article "Effective writing instruction: From Japanese danraku to English paragraphs" by Kazumi Kimura and Masako Kondo (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies), they detail some of these common Japanese writing constructs. One common Japanese writing construct is that the students are taught to have their thesis/main idea at the end of their papers. This seems very strange and out of place to an American writer who is used to presenting the point early on so the reader knows what their reading for. However this also yields some insight on a Japanese reading construct. This being that they are looking at support for an implied thesis that will be stated later on in the paper. Another part of this article explained the main difference between Japanese and American writing styles. It's explained that Americans write in order to lay out an opinion on a subject in a easily presentable manner, whereas Japanese writers, write to evoke emotions and show off their skills to the reader. This is a truly interesting analysis of both constructs. The american one is without a doubt in my mind true, and the Japanese construct gives a ton of insight into why they write the way that they do. They are taught to impress writers while also taught to create some kind of emotion in the reader. This is not only an interesting construct but also a very difficult task to complete. They must throw away being modest in order to show off whilst stirring emotions.
Another different language of writing with drastically different constructs is in Korean writing. In the article "The differences between English and Korean" on the website http://esl.fis.edu/ some of these constructs are described. Korean writing has obvious differences to American writing, however a major difference is that in Korean writing there is no importance on stressed single words. This is a huge difference from American writing because we place loads of emphasis on single words (hence the phrase key words).
These different constructs are seemingly strange to an American with their own traditional constructs, however other cultures view our constructs in the same light. In doing this assignment I have learned that its common in every nation to have a set of constructs and that the degree of difficulty to break these constructs varies based on the culture and language itself.
Sources: http://jalt.org/pansig/2004/HTML/KimKon.htm
http://esl.fis.edu//grammar/langdiff/korean.htm
Since the day I first touched pen to paper, I've been taught all of the traditional American ways to write an essay (four to five paragraphs long, main idea in the first paragraph, details in the following paragraphs, and a conclusion to sum it all up at the end). Not once have I thought about how writing in other cultures differs from the writing styles in America. I've always assumed they were the same.
ReplyDeleteAs I read through the article "Effective writing instruction: From Japanese danraku to English paragraphs," I realized how many differences there could be when relating American writing to other cultures, such as Japanese. For example, Japanese essays are divided into four parts (intro, development, turning point, and conclusion)and do not arrive at the point until the second or third paragraph. Japanese writers also use a lot of pronouns and are generally vague , leaving it up to the reader to try to understand the point without much help. These styles contrast with American style writing in many ways. Americans are known to be very clear and concise, giving numerous details so the reader doesn’t have to think much to know what the point is.
I have also come to understand the Arabic style of writing an essay by reading the article "Influence of Cultural and Linguistic Writing of Arabic and Japanese Students of English". In this style of writing there is a lot of importance in effective expression. Arabians tend to focus more on the form of the expression, rather than the content. This culture also includes a large amount of exaggeration in their writing, while American writing is more simplistic. Many other aspects, such as the mix-up between present and past tense in Arabic style writing can also create a gap between Americans and Arabians when it comes to essays.
These differences in writing may be odd the American writer, but they are very important to understanding language, literacy, and communication between different cultures. You can't truly understand writing until you've explored all aspects of it.
Sources:
http://jalt.org/pansig/2004/HTML/KimKon.htm
http://writing2.richmond.edu/training/383/383restricted/moujtahid.pdf
Usually, from a young age, we are taught that the best way of writing a good document is in the form of the five paragraph essay. The use of an introduction, three topic paragraphs, and a conclusion was drilled into our brain to be the sure-fire way to score great on standardized tests. What I didn’t know, until today, was that this isn’t the only structured way to write a prize winning essay. All over the world, kids are being taught different ways to write their culture’s own example of our American five paragraph essay. All of these varying writing techniques produce the same result of telling the same stories. Many of these essays tend to play on rhetoric and help distinguish the points that reflect upon their culture.
ReplyDeleteStereotypically, Chinese are considered to be very anal retentive. This reflects upon the way they teach school children to write. Much of the schooling requires precise understanding and is very detail oriented. Just like our 5 paragraph essay, China has their own version. This is called the eight-legged essay. It gives you specific rules on how to organize the information. The main difference between the two types of writing constructs is that the eight legged essay has many more rules to follow. The point of the essays are to be direct and to the point. This style makes it completely unheard of, in Chinese culture, to have a rambling essay. The essays are organized and constructed to make every word makes sense. The point is to have each sentence be able to stand alone and make complete sense. There are no fillers or fluffers. Each part is building on the sentence before it or making another argument. There are actual specific rules for the amount of sentences per paragraph, as well as a word limit per paragraph. The essay contains an introduction similar to that within the five paragraph essay. Although, in the eight legged essay, it is separated into two parts. The first part (poti) is a breaking open of the topic. This, in my opinion, is the catchy opening. It tells your reader what the essay is on (Telling them what you plan on telling them). The second part (chengti) is receiving the topic. In my opinion, this is similar to telling the reader your thesis, or ideas and arguments on the topic. In general, we can conclude that the first part is a way to give background information and tell the reader what they should already know. The second is to voice how you, the writer, feel about what you have just brought up. Unlike the five paragraph essay, where you bring up three separate main arguments which in turn become your three body paragraphs, the eight legged essay brings up points, but with each new paragraph you bring on more insight. Each body paragraph become more and more insightful. They have names such as beginning discussion (qijiang), initial leg (qigu), transition(xugu), middle leg (zhonggu), and finally the later leg( hougu). What I find most interesting, however, is the fact that the middle leg is actually more towards the end of the essay. This shows me that the Chinese method intends for a strong beginning and to let the end come together to finally let the content stand as a well explained and argued fact. The conclusion (dajie) is an expression of all the words before it. I believe it is similar to the five paragraph essay in the fact that it"s a summation of the preceding paragraphs. The conclusion is meant to be a clarification of the examples, sub arguments, and is the final piece of insight to fully create a valid argument. My only complaint about the Chinese essay is that it’s so structured that I feel like you can’t fully express your ideas. This is mostly due to the world limits and sentence limits within each of the paragraphs, as well as the fact that you can’t use some fluff. All cold hard facts and arguments make a pretty boring essay. I feel you need to bring some kind of attention grabber or else no one will be interested in your essay. Page 1
This can actually take away from your essay. If people can’t relate or become bored, they often forget what they read or don't show interest in soaking in your ideas.
ReplyDeleteIn the case of the Chinese essays, the stereotype was that of anal retentive. Usually the French are described as being very emotional. But the French essays only vary from the American ones in terms of the introduction and conclusion. Usually the Americans are taught that their thesis statement should placed at the end of the introduction. But what is odd is that the French seem to just randomly slide it in. Even sometimes it not even mentioned until the conclusion. This the complete polar opposite of what happens within the American essays. The American style of essay starts strong and in your face and ends with a summary as the conclusion. While the French way of writing is to start moderately and continue talking about the chosen subject until the point (thesis) is clear at the conclusion. I find this to be slightly confusing. Maybe it is the many years of American style schooling drilled into my head. I feel that it's necessary to let the reader know your position so that any arguments after that can only add on to your ethos. I can, however, see this type of essay being effective for a very controversial topic. By not giving away your position right way, you don’t have those who oppose your position shutting you out right from the beginning. Even if you have good arguments, people don’t want you to make them wrong and therefore have more time to think of counter arguments before you can influence them.
Throughout my research on many different ways of writing I was able to prove some stereotypes and disprove others from several countries. I even discussed Americans. who are usually right in your face and obnoxious. This coincides with the way we write our essays (An attention grabbing introduction with an in your face conclusion). So, in general, differences in points of views and writing styles can work in different ways to get the same point across. The way you set up an essay can determine how your reader may feel about it and whether or not they will pay attention to your ideas.
Works Cited
"Berkshire Encyclopedia of Sustainability: V.7: China, India, and East and Southeast Asia: Assessing Sustainability." Choice Reviews Online 50.11 (2013): 50-5935. Print.
"Matthew Tyler Giobbi, Ph.D." : French Dissertation Style: An Education Reform for America? N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.
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Writing constructs have been a huge deal to us students since the fourth grade when the FCAT writes was introduced to us. This structure of writing was to have three main points that were stated with a catchy introduction along with a wrap-up conclusion. The way this was formatted left no other way to write, you had to have three points, no more no less. Also, the introduction had to be catchy in order to grab the reader’s attention. American writing is straight forward, where there is a specific format with all writings having to follow specific grammar, punctuation, syntax, and diction stylizations. Also, much of the writing deals with an explanation of the context that we write about. American constructs in writing are more detailed oriented as opposed to the Japanese way of writing with much of their essays being highly contextualized. Much of the essays that Japanese people write have little explanations of the main objective, people who read these essays have to infer the main point. Also, key words are not influenced in Japanese writing like they are in American writing. Japanese writing also is not as direct because it is thought of as being rude to ask someone directly for something. For instance instead of saying, “Turn the heat up,” they would say something along the lines of, “It’s kind of cold in here, the heat should be turned up.” Now, looking at the Russian culture, there is not as strict of sentence structure. Sentences that would be considered run-on in Western cultures are used liberally in Russian writing. In A Russian Beauty the writer had an entire paragraph, which would be considered a run-on sentence in America, with each phrase separated by the word now. As seen at the Olympic Game’s opening day act, each float symbolized something in their culture, but it had an artistic twist. It symbolically represented their country without directly stating that time in their history. Their writing reflects this by using symbolism to discuss their topics. While starting and ending with their thesis the interior of their writing uses this symbolic resonance.
ReplyDeleteBibliography
http://www.shmoop.com/a-russian-beauty/writing-style.html
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Professional_and_Technical_Writing/Ethics/Cultures
Ever since moving to the United States I have always felt that my culture was dramatically different from that of American culture. However, this difference of culture was not only socially, but as well as its literature. Lima is one of Latin America’s brightest literary scenes, and in the last year, Peruvian writers have won prestigious literary prizes. Many people consider Peruvians to be considerably pleasant and relaxed, but their writing style is anything but. The writing evokes a very powerful type of language reflective to the country's history and the darkness of its past. While American writing seems more strict with the unspoken rules you are expected to know and follow. Writing in Peru is all about the emotion you put into it and how powerful the words are to you.
ReplyDeleteSources:
1.http://www.intercultures.ca/cil-cai/ci-ic-eng.asp?iso=pe
2. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/weekinreview/29romero.html?fta=y&_r=0
Usually the first lesson taught in writing in elementary school is about how a sentence should be structured. That subjects came before verbs, and later learned about clauses. Then you slowly move into more complex 'rules' such as, each paragraph is five to seven sentences, or your thesis should be your second or third sentence as a rule of thumb. I still remember to this day my 1st grade teacher standing in front of the class using the analogy that a hamburger is like an essay. The top bun is the introduction, the cheese is the first main point, the lettuce the second, then the burger is the third and the bottom bun is the conclusion. Although 'general writing rules' are rarely used today (I do not remember the last time I wrote a 5 paragraph essay), it was an easy way to get kids to learn basic writing skills across a very populated country. Of course these writing rules are not the same across the board, other countries and cultures have very different rules (that we might even find odd!), but work for their setting.
ReplyDeleteI remember in high school we had to take two years of a foreign language, and the choices were French or Spanish. I picked Spanish because I heard through the vine it was the easier of the two, and thought it was more applicable since I lived in Florida which has a higher number of Spanish speakers compared to some states. I found Spanish to be the most difficult class compared to the rest I took in high school, their writing style and rules were completely different than what I was used too! I had to learn different conjunctions, some words were masculine and feminine, and their sentence structure was completely different. I did research and found that Americas writing and grammar system differed greatly compared to the rest of the world, and to my disbelief was considered one of the hardest languages to learn because of how weird we are. In French, the grammatical and writing styles differ greatly. In their culture, the use commas instead of decimal points
Apart from the grammar and writing rules that differ between American and other cultures, there is the writing style that is apparent between cultures. Americans are known to be direct, where as other countries and forms of writing may be more metaphorical and creative. In researching French styles of writing, the French compared to the Anglo- Saxon style of writing are said to be suspenseful. French students are taught instead of writing your thesis in the first couple sentences, that you put your thesis in the conclusion. European styles in general follow this trend, but in an American institution if you put your thesis or main point not until the end, your professor might have a field day. One reasoning for this is, in America we assume that he reader has no idea what we are talking about and we are teaching them. I remember especially in AP classes, specifically my United States AP teacher would always say "On the essay prompts, explain everything in every detail in a mature way but act like the audience has no idea what the American Revolution is." In European countries, the writer assumes the reader knows the general topic of the essay or writing material and that is why they are taught to put the thesis in their conclusion versus the introduction. (Page 1)
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ReplyDeleteWriting styles and rules greatly differ from one culture to the next, which in my opinion proves there is no right or wrong style. When I first took Spanish, it was almost a culture shock because their writing rules, grammatical rules and style was not anything I had seen before. I assumed to that point that there was just different languages, but sentence structure was the same. In addition one of the basic rules that is taught to American students is that you always put your thesis in your introduction, without your thesis how will the reader ever know what you are talking about. The approach is different in European countries, where they put their thesis in the conclusion because they assume that the person knows generally the topic they are discussing. Of course this is pattern noticed throughout different intuitions and comparatives, not a generalization that all Europeans follow this writing style.
ReplyDelete(Page 2)
http://www.tuftsdaily.com/getting-it-write-essay-styles-vary-by-country-creating-difficulties-for-international-students-1.838709#.Uv170PldU8s
http://www.studyspanish.com/tutorial.htm
http://french.about.com/library/bl-reglesdecriture.htm
Attending schools here in America we were always taught to write a certain way because that’s what we assumed to be the correct or easiest way. By having teacher constantly repeating to us that essays should be at least 5 paragraphs long and consist of an introduction, body, and conclusion. Even within these paragraphs we needed to have 3 main points in the body paragraph with supporting details. And if this isn’t enough teachers would usually say to start the introduction with something catchy to grab the reader’s attention. But I think what bothered me most about the American writing construct was that you needed to use bigger words and get to the point so that the reader or audience understand what is being said. Although I am from a Hispanic heritage I doesn’t really write a lot in Spanish but from the little things I do know is that unlike the writing here in America, in Latin countries the message in not straight to the point. The choice of wording is more towards the emphasis of the information. But it’s also not just Spanish speaking countries that do that as well. For example Sergio Pitol was born in Mexico but did not live there for long. He moved to all parts of the world like Paris, Moscow, Rome, Beijing, Barcelona, and other countries. And even so in these countries he learned to compare their writing styles and yet combine what they do have that are unique to their culture. “Sergio Pitol’s stories, essays and novels do not only travel through his many places of residence. His writing – the way he constructs sentences, inflects Spanish, twists meanings and stresses particular words – reflects the multiplicity of languages he has read and embraced –and perhaps, too, the many men he has been. Reading him is like reading through the layers of many languages at once.” Or there could be countries that don’t like to emphasize the meaning of what they are writing through their writing. “As with many other cultures (Mediterranean and Middle Eastern for example) much more emphasis is placed upon the spoken than the written word. People believe things when they have heard them from someone with whom they have a trusting relationship. Therefore, it is often much more efficient to hold face-to-face meetings at which issues can be fully explained, rather than sending information in a written format only.” Although many countries have their own unique style or similar style it’s has a way to express and have their particular audience to be able to understand.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.granta.com/New-Writing/Best-Untranslated-Writers-Sergio-Pitol
http://www.worldbusinessculture.com/Russian-Business-Communication-Style.html
In America, we are normally taught a standard form of writing. The most popular approach to writing is of course the "5-paragraph" rule. Now as it worked to test standardization, it was not affective in teaching children how to actually compose an interesting and creative essay.
ReplyDeleteWhile researching, I stumbled on a webpage titled "The Chinese Language". This website opened up and introduced to me the idea that Chinese language uses as having a simplified language, along with a traditional form of it. This is different as in the US, we do not have two forms of the language. The website states that people can learn to be literate in the simplified form, but they may not be literate at all in the traditional form of the language.
Another article I ran into, simply titled "Cultures - Chinese", mentions that the mandarin language does not have the articles for "a,an,the". This means that a sentence like "The dog was a golden retriever" could not be translated into mandarin. I found this very interesting because we use these articles in almost every sentence we write. It is amazing that they can write their whole language and compose paragraphs and sentences for their language.
http://ethnomed.org/culture/chinese/chinese-language-profile
http://www.sandiego.edu/esl/cultures/chinese/teachingchinese.htm
In America, today’s students have been forced to learn the standardized testing constructs known as the five paragraph essay. It contains a various number of rules that may not be valid in other pieced of writing, such as attention grabbers, exactly three main points, and a conclusion to sum up what the reader already knows have been forced into the minds of most students since elementary school. However for non-American students, this format may be unheard of. It is safe to say that of America's school system considers the five-paragraph essay to be standard procedure. Some teachers may overlook the fact that this system is not universal and can leave some international students at a disadvantage. French students fore example, are trained to write an essay in the style that they called “une dissertation,” this can be very similar to the way we write our essays in structure, but very different in the actual content. The difference between the American and French styles can often be found in the introduction and the conclusion. The Americanized essay will often begin straight to the point, with a thesis in the introductory paragraph, while the French version will instead choose to place the thesis in the concluding paragraph. This is thought to be placed in this order because having the thesis in the beginning is too direct in an essay. French writings will often begin with questions in their introductory paragraph as a way to show the reader which questions the essay will answer later on, but the body paragraphs in both models, would be very much the same. However there are a few differences in how the actual text is written such as, In French essays it is considered offensive if you make some parts too clear, implying that your reader is not smart enough to understand the point you are trying to make without breaking it down. This topic has been very interesting learning how different cultures write and I believe that studying international writings more can really help me become a better writer in the future.
ReplyDeletehttp://bettizpod.over-blog.com/article-17353773.html
http://www.mgiobbi.com/2011/10/french-dissertation-style-education.html
Writing can be constructed in many ways. If it varies from person to person, then who is it to say that it doesn't vary from culture to culture? Culture is defined as a way of being, behaving and acting in people’s lives. Our culture contributes to all aspects of our lives including reading and writing. Our culture can change the perceptions we have on certain types of writing.
ReplyDeleteOne of these culture based perceptions is Plagiarism. In the United States plagiarism is considered to be a taboo, that is shown in the prevalence of Universities honor codes and academic dishonesty. However, is plagiarism just a western idea? Copying another ones work is derived from freedom of speech and copyright. This makes it difficult for international students whose culture doesn't share the same principles. In countries such as China and Japan, it is considered to be respectful to use the author’s words in a piece of writing. I feel as plagiarism is a big issue for me as well. I find it hard to improve and introduce new ideas to what has already been said. Then, trying to claim the new mixed idea as if it was your own. Personally I find there to be so many ways to write a sentence or an idea. Eventually we will be subject to plagiarism. Plus the fact that plagiarism is western based idea, I consider plagiarism to be a writing construct.
In the United States, learning other languages isn't as high of a priority as it is in other countries. Being bilingual has an effect on a person’s literacy. It is prevalent in comprehensive tests during case studies conducted on groups of monolingual (English) vs bilingual (French/ Spanish). The bilingual students had a much higher performance in writing speed and effectiveness on tests (in English). Bilinguals scoring 14pts higher on a scale of 130. Personally I find this interesting as after 3 years of simple high school French, I found myself understanding of how my native English language is built. My grade school writing of simple subject and clauses came make to me in these years which greatly improved my writing. Throughout China and Japan English along with other languages are mandatory in primary schools. Comparing to the United States where foreign language isn't mandatory till high school. Being bilingual I find to be a writing construct that needs to be more stressed in the United States.
Cultures are have many differences between each other. Another one happens to be how we read and write. This is shown in our attitudes towards plagiarism and bilingualism. To truly become a greater writer one must understand the engrained perceptions of his culture. Thus, allowing themselves to be enlightened to new ways of understanding concepts of writing.
Work cited:
1.
"The Pennsylvania State University Division of Undergraduate Studies." The Mentor. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.
http://dus.psu.edu/mentor/2012/03/guide-to-advising-international-students-about-academic-integrity/
2.
Bilingual Effects on Cognitive and Linguistic Development: Role of Language, Cultural Background, and Education." - Barac. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01707.x/full
Writing never came easy for me, it always takes me a very long time to ponder about what to write and how to format the essay in a proper way. However, I think i really like the 5 paragraph essay because I actually have an idea of how to format the actual essay and where to place the instruction, body and conclusion. I am pretty an algorithm type of write so if there is a set-up format it would be concise and easier for me to write an essay.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I came from a different background and i never knew of the 5 paragraph essay for the 13 years of my life. I went to school in Vietnam and the Vietnamese literature and the style of writing is complete different from the one in the US. For instance, you don't need to follow a certain format or create any attention grabbers, but instead, your writing must be flamboyant and at least three or four thousand words and the writing must be as long as possible in order for students to receive a grade. That is why I always struggled and received at best a C and sometimes worse depending on how lenient the teacher is. The Vietnamese alphabet was first introduced by the Portuguese merchant back in the day, therefore its alphabet is very similar to the Spanish alphabet and France dominated Vietnam for almost a century, so there are a lot of borrowed words from the French language and it is also deeply influenced by the fancy French style of writing. The way Vietnamese writer constructs an essay is very different from American writer. The way an essay in Vietnamese constructed is like water, it is shapeless and formless which is there is no certain way of building an essay, and there is no length limit, the more you write and the more explanations there are, the higher grade the essay might get. So if you try to make the essay concise and up to the point, the essay will not be looked at and receive a bad remark. So basically the point of Vietnamese literature is it makes life harder for the writer and not practically good for economic purpose and only good for promoting political propaganda.
The thing I admire about Vietnamese writing is good writers usually convey a beautiful and pretty visualization for the writers. Because there are so many details and points to make in the essay itself, the writer might have a have time writing it but the reader actually benefits from that and understand the writing in a meticulous way.
From the start of elementary school, we're taught that writing should have a distinctive beginning, middle and end. Starting with the main point (thesis) and ending with a conclusion that sums up the whole writing. We're taught to give three main points with supporting details. One point reflecting each paragraph. I feel that this type of constructive writing limits students to express themselves and show their true potential. What's to say just because your writing doesn't reach standardized testing requirements, it's not gold? These are examples I found that demonstrates good writing without having the standardized format.
ReplyDeleteThe first culture I researched was the literacy techniques of the Ethiopian culture. No particular reason, I just figured it'd have a high contrast from American literature. In Ethiopian literature, writings are written orally. Oral traditions are very important to the African cultures. Before they knew how to read and write, things were passed on orally. Ethiopian writers such as Afawark Gabra Iyasus, became a famous writer in Africa for his novel Libb-waled tarik. This novel was the first writing written in Ahmaric (Ethiopian form of writing). It had a story telling flow, nothing too dense or hard to interpret unlike American literature.
The second culture I researched was the literacy flow of the Japanese. Their form of writing is constructed like Americans. However, unlike the five paragraph essay set up that we have, their essays are broken up into four parts. First, similar to our essays, the introduction. Then development, turning point, and lastly conclusion. In American Literature the attention grabber is relied on by the introduction. We need to be persuaded and interested to read further in to the essay. In Japanese culture, the turning point is the attention grabber. I think this demonstrates how other cultures can be successful in writing without possessing the highly looked upon “American way”.
1. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/8275/African-literature/280669/The-influence-of-oral-traditions-on-modern-writers#
2.http://www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/japan/education_literacy.htm
It goes without being said that Americans try to simplify everything. Instead of teaching different styles of writing to really open up our youth’s imagination, we were taught the simplified way dubbed the five-paragraph essay. I believe it is almost useless to learn only one cultures way of writing due to the fact that they all vary so much, learning more then one ways could break down the barriers of communication. For instance the Spanish culture tends to put more stress on certain sentences and vowels. This allows for more emotion to be felt through the writing’s along with verbal communication. The base of Spanish communication is romance, this adds in certain flair to the way words are both pronounced and understood, the English style just lacks this feel for passion. Their vowel system differs from ours tremendously; Spanish has only five pure vowels and five diphthongs. The English culture has 12 pure vowels and 8 diphthongs. Another culture that differs from English is the Hebrew culture. Hebrew unlike English is much more of an inflected language. Their sentences end with more verbs along with the fact that adjectives need to match up with the right noun, which needs to be in the right gender form. This makes Hebrew a more specific and much more complex language when it comes to properly constructing sentences. The construct for Hebrew consists of only five or six vowel sounds depending on the sentence structure. Along with 20 constants, this causes a lack of discrimination between short and long vowel sounds. This is why people of the Middle East are known for really stretching their vowels to get their point across. Every country has developed with different attitudes in mind, the French are known for their romanticism, The British for being proper, and the Spanish for their quickness. All of these countries differ from the traditional American way, but are all influenced by their cultures and their citizens allowing them to each have their own niche in the language world.
ReplyDeleteSources:
http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/langdiff/spanish.htm
http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/langdiff/hebrew.htm
In English literature, students are taught to make their writing short, sweet, and to the point. The main point is the focal point of the paper and all other elements should adhere to this well-defined, concise thesis. The strength of the piece relies on this thesis. The sentences in a traditional English essay contain the fewest unnecessary words. This style of writing has its strengths. A writer can easily convey a multitude of relevant facts and stories in the shortest amount of time. However, some of its potential emotional appeal can be lost due to the brevity of the paper.
ReplyDeleteSpanish literature is not so focused on the efficient transfer of information. It can actually turn out to be rather convoluted. The main idea of the essay is shrouded by florid wording that may confuse the reader. It’s focused on the beauty of the words rather than conveying the message. Also, the supporting facts of the paper are presented before the main point being supported. As shown in the “Writing Across Borders” study. Spanish literature can have more of an emotional impact on the reader than American literature but is also more susceptible to dishonest expression, meaning that it can be taken in a way that the writer didn’t intend for it, much like how emotions can be interpreted in a number of ways.