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Culture, logic, and rhetoric (3)

The document discusses how rhetoric and logic are culturally specific, highlighting the differences in writing styles across languages such as English, Arabic, Persian, and Spanish. It emphasizes that mastering English grammar alone is insufficient for effective writing; understanding English rhetoric is equally important. The document also notes that students may struggle with reading and writing in English if they are not familiar with its rhetorical conventions.

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6 views

Culture, logic, and rhetoric (3)

The document discusses how rhetoric and logic are culturally specific, highlighting the differences in writing styles across languages such as English, Arabic, Persian, and Spanish. It emphasizes that mastering English grammar alone is insufficient for effective writing; understanding English rhetoric is equally important. The document also notes that students may struggle with reading and writing in English if they are not familiar with its rhetorical conventions.

Uploaded by

alexmartell
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Culture, Logic and Rhetoric1 by Alice Oshima and Ann

Hogue

Logic, which is the basis of rhetoric, comes from culture; it is not


universal. Rhetoric therefore, is not universal either but varies from
culture to culture. The rhetorical system of one language is neither
better nor worse than the rhetorical system of another language, but it
is different.
English logic and English rhetoric, which are based on Anglo-
European cultural patterns, are linear—that is, a good English
paragraph begins with a general statement of its content and then
carefully develops that statement with a series of specific illustrations.
A good English paragraph may also use just the reverse sequence: it
may state a whole series of examples and then summarize those
examples in a single statement at the end of the paragraph. In either
case, however, the flow of ideas occurs in a straight line from the
opening sentence to the last sentence. Furthermore, a well-structured
English paragraph is never digressive. There is nothing that does not
belong to the paragraph and nothing that does not support the topic
sentence.
A type of construction found in Arabic and Persian writing is
very different. Whereas English writers use a linear sequence, Arabic
and Persian writers tend to construct a paragraph in a parallel
sequence using many coordinators such as and and but. In English,
maturity of style is often judged by the degree of subordination rather
than by the degree of coordination. Therefore, the Arabic and Persian
styles of writing, with their emphasis on coordination, seem awkward
and immature to an English reader.
Some Asian writers, on the other hand, use an indirect
approach. In this kind of writing, the topic is viewed from a variety of
angles. The topic is never analyzed directly; it is referred to only indi-
rectly. Again, such a development in an English paragraph is awkward
and is unnecessarily vague to an English reader.
Spanish rhetoric differs from English rhetoric in still another
way. While the rules of English rhetoric require that every sentence in
a paragraph relate directly to the central idea, a Spanish-speaking
writer loves to fill a paragraph with interesting digressions. Although
a Spanish paragraph may begin and end on the same topic, the writer
often digresses into areas that are not directly related to the topic.
Spanish rhetoric, therefore, does not follow the English rule of
paragraph unity.

1
Alice Oshima, Ann Hogue. Writing Academic English. Longman, 3 rd ed., 1999, pp. 32-
33.
In summary, a student who has mastered the grammar of
English may still write poor papers unless he/she has also mastered
the rhetoric of English. Also, the student may have difficulty reading
an essay written by the rules of English rhetoric unless he/she
understands the "logical" differences from those of his/her own native
tongue.

Vocabulary List:

rhetoric: way of speaking or writing


logic: way of thinking or reasoning
linear: in a straight line
digressive: wandering away from the main topic
awkward: clumsy, not graceful
vague: unclear
coordinators: words that join equal elements such as “but,” “and,” “or,”
“so”
subordination: the joining of two unequal elements with a subordinate
conjunction like “because,” “when,” “if,” “since”

In the space below, write a one or two sentence summary (in your own
words) of what you think is the most important point (main point) in this
article.

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