Newspaper commentaries on terrorism in China and Australia: A contrastive genre study
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Wei Wang
Abstract
Newspaper articles are a common genre that has been examined in contrastive rhetoric research to explore its rhetorical and linguistic patterns. However, this chapter aims to go beyond this and to explore how the writers position themselves, manipulate the topic and address their readers by the use of various linguistic strategies and devices. This chapter illustrates the key findings by examining two newspaper commentaries, one Chinese and one Australian. The analysis indicates that the Chinese writer tends to avoid personal voice by the use of more facts and evidence to establish arguments, while the Australian writer shows personal identity clearly by presenting his viewpoint. These findings are discussed in relation to the respective sociocultural contexts in which the texts were written.
Abstract
Newspaper articles are a common genre that has been examined in contrastive rhetoric research to explore its rhetorical and linguistic patterns. However, this chapter aims to go beyond this and to explore how the writers position themselves, manipulate the topic and address their readers by the use of various linguistic strategies and devices. This chapter illustrates the key findings by examining two newspaper commentaries, one Chinese and one Australian. The analysis indicates that the Chinese writer tends to avoid personal voice by the use of more facts and evidence to establish arguments, while the Australian writer shows personal identity clearly by presenting his viewpoint. These findings are discussed in relation to the respective sociocultural contexts in which the texts were written.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Introduction 1
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Section I. Current state of contrastive rhetoric
- From contrastive rhetoric to intercultural rhetoric: A search for collective identity 11
- The importance of comparable corpora in cross-cultural studies 25
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Section II. Contrastive corpus studies in specific genres
- Metadiscourse across three varieties of English: American, British, and advanced learner English 45
- A genre-based study of research grant proposals in China 63
- Different cultures – different discourses? Rhetorical patterns of business letters by English and Russian speakers 87
- Spanish language newspaper editorials from Mexico, Spain, and the U.S. 123
- The rhetorical structure of academic book reviews of literature: An English-Spanish cross-linguistic approach 147
- Newspaper commentaries on terrorism in China and Australia: A contrastive genre study 169
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Section III. Contrastive rhetoric and the teaching of ESL/EFL writing
- "Long sentences and floating commas": Mexican students' rhetorical practices and the sociocultural context 195
- English web page use in an EFL setting: A contrastive rhetoric view of the development of information literacy 219
- From Confucianism to Marxism: A century of theme treatment in Chinese writing instruction 241
- Plagiarism in an intercultural rhetoric context: What we can learn about one from the other 257
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Section IV. Future directions
- A conversation on contrastive rhetoric: Dwight Atkinson and Paul Kei Matsuda talk about issues, conceptualizations, and the future of contrastive rhetoric 277
- Mapping multidimensional aspects of research: Reaching to intercultural rhetoric 299
- Notes on contributors 317
- Index 321
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Introduction 1
-
Section I. Current state of contrastive rhetoric
- From contrastive rhetoric to intercultural rhetoric: A search for collective identity 11
- The importance of comparable corpora in cross-cultural studies 25
-
Section II. Contrastive corpus studies in specific genres
- Metadiscourse across three varieties of English: American, British, and advanced learner English 45
- A genre-based study of research grant proposals in China 63
- Different cultures – different discourses? Rhetorical patterns of business letters by English and Russian speakers 87
- Spanish language newspaper editorials from Mexico, Spain, and the U.S. 123
- The rhetorical structure of academic book reviews of literature: An English-Spanish cross-linguistic approach 147
- Newspaper commentaries on terrorism in China and Australia: A contrastive genre study 169
-
Section III. Contrastive rhetoric and the teaching of ESL/EFL writing
- "Long sentences and floating commas": Mexican students' rhetorical practices and the sociocultural context 195
- English web page use in an EFL setting: A contrastive rhetoric view of the development of information literacy 219
- From Confucianism to Marxism: A century of theme treatment in Chinese writing instruction 241
- Plagiarism in an intercultural rhetoric context: What we can learn about one from the other 257
-
Section IV. Future directions
- A conversation on contrastive rhetoric: Dwight Atkinson and Paul Kei Matsuda talk about issues, conceptualizations, and the future of contrastive rhetoric 277
- Mapping multidimensional aspects of research: Reaching to intercultural rhetoric 299
- Notes on contributors 317
- Index 321
