Alina Vamanu, blog post #5


The topic of contrastive rhetoric has been of interest to me over the years. Indeed, I have experienced different writing styles myself. I have also taught and tutored speakers of English as a second language, many of whom have likely been exposed to different writing styles too. I would argue that while different "cultures" may encourage different writing styles during particular historical periods, these are not grounded in incommensurable linguistic differences. In other words, it is not the structure of a language that "leads to" or "causes" a particular writing style; rather, I believe that writing styles are grounded in writing traditions, which, in many cases, tend to vary over time and across disciplines.

Let us take the U.S. as a cultural space (keeping in mind, of course, that this is not a homogenous "culture;" there are many intersecting and overlapping "cultures" and "subcultures" within the U.S.). We often think of American essays as featuring "linear" or "direct" prose and using "straightforward" vocabulary. But even in the case of the U.S., writing styles have varied over time. For instance, many of the essays written in the nineteenth century differ in profound ways from contemporary essays. The former often indicate a preference for long, elaborate sentences and sophisticated vocabulary, while the latter tend to use concise sentences and everyday language.

Writing styles also vary across disciplines. For instance, in the Romanian schools I attended students were exposed to different writing styles: they learned how to write essay-type compositions in the humanities on the one hand, and rigorous demonstrations in the sciences on the other hand. The essays often featured long sentences and "flowery" language, and built their argument slowly with the main claim only becoming clear toward the end. Scientific writing was much closer in structure and organization to American academic texts: it featured concise sentences, straightforward language, and clear arguments.

Thus, different writing styles do not seem to be grounded in incommensurable linguistic differences. Indeed, we often find a variety of writing styles within the same cultural and linguistic space. Given these insights, I really liked Casanave's (2004) suggestion to ask our students about their previous writing instruction and beliefs regarding "good writing" (49). Having students "become 'ethnographers' of their own writing" (49) would give us tutors the chance to understand their background and writing practices, and draw upon them to teach academically suitable writing.

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