Cross-cultural aspects of academic writing: a study of Hungarian and North American College students L1 argumentative essays

• Published in: International journal of English studies Vol. 8; no. 2; pp. 65 - 111
• Main Author: Godo, Agnes M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Murcia Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Murcia (Murcia University Press) 01-07-2008; Universidad de Murcia, Facultad de Letras; Universidad de Murcia
• Subjects: Academic writing; College students; Colleges & universities; Cultural anthropology; Cultural differences; Data collection; Educational Environment; Essays; Foreign language learning; Genetic engineering; hierarchical text organisation; Hungarian language; inductive/deductive argumentation; Insurance industry; Language Skills; listing/alternating/elaborating argument structure; nucleus; opposing/supporting argument; plausibility judgment; Reading Comprehension; rhetorical structure; satellite; Second language writing; Students; Studies; Teachers; Hungary
• ISSN: 1578-7044; 1989-6131
• DOI: 10.6018/ijes.8.2.49181

The paper presents the findings and implications of a contrastive rhetorical study of Hungarian and North American college students' L1 argumentative writing. With the help of the refined version of Mann &Thompson's Rhetorical Structure Analysis, the investigation highlights potentially culture-bound differences in the positioning and function of nuclear or thesis statements, logical organisation in terms of rhetorical structure relations on different levels of text and the representation of alternative viewpoints. Differing argumentative schemata are related to different underlying intellectual traditions, and suggestions are made for the pedagogical integration of findings. KEYWORDS: Rhetorical structure, nucleus, satellite, hierarchical text organisation, plausibility judgment, inductive/deductive argumentation, opposing/supporting argument, listing/alternating/elaborating argument structure