Saturday 5:45 - 6:35 PM
Rose
Is Teaching Writing Style Cultural Imperialism?
Stephen K. Roney
Hoseo
What passes currently as good English writing style is mostly derived
from two famous but brief treatises: Strunk and White's The Elements of
Style, and George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language." The present
talk seeks to demonstrate that this is not the only possible "good" writing
style. Rather, it is culturally based and contains its own assumptions
and biases. These biases will be isolated and explained in cultural-historic
terms. They will be contrasted with traditional Asian writing styles.
The present talk does not expect to come to any final conclusion on
the issue. But it should make teachers of writing more aware of the issues
involved when they teach English composition in an
Asian context.
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