English Composition: Some Cross-cultural Considerations

Japanese-English Contrasts

1. English tends to be writer responsible.

• This means that when writing in English you must make sure that your readers understand what you write.
• You do this by thinking about what your readers know and do not know about the topic.
• You should also make clear, well-organized statements.
• Make your written English unified by giving transition statements.
• Transitional statements should form the thread of a your logic.

2. Japanese tends to be a reader-responsible.

• This means that readers are responsible to make meaning from the texts they are reading.
• Transitional statements may be completely absent or at least weak, by English standards.
• It is the reader's responsibility to understand how one part of the essay is joined to the whole essay.
• Hinds feels that Japanese writing has been influenced by classical Chinese rhetoric, with the result that essays written in the ki-shou-ten-ketsu form, require the reader to determine how the ten sub themes relate to the main theme of the essay.

Patterns of Organization

Oi, in her comparison of the rhetorical patterns of arguments written by Japanese and American writers found a number of interesting contrasts. I have included two of the important ones below.

Hedges versus Hyperbole

• One cultural factor she feels influences Japanese writers style is the Japanese hesitation to contradict others' opinions or make declarative statements. As a result, many Japanese writers use "hedges" such as "I feel", "I think", and "I suppose" to make their writing seem less forceful.
• American writers tend to use superlatives and hyperbole more than Japanese writers. For example, expressions such as "it is absolutely essential", "without doubt", "a complete collapse", etc.

General to Specific versus Specific to General

• Oi also found that Americans writing in English prefer to use a general to specific pattern. This means they start with a clear statement of what they will talk about and then add points that support their statement.
• On the other hand, Japanese writers tend to prefer starting with a number of specific statements and make their overall argument clear at the end by concluding with a general statement.

Conclusion

There is nothing wrong with writing using a Japanese form of organization, as long as you are writing in Japanese. However, when you write in English, you must learn the customs of English composition.

References

Hinds, John. (1987). Reader versus writer responsibility: A new typology. In U. Connor and R.B.Kaplan (eds.) Writing Across Languages: Analysis of L2 Text. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.

Oi, Kyoko. (ND). Cross-cultural Differences in Rhetorical Patterning: A Study of Japanese and English. JACET Bulletin. (17), pp. 23-48.