Cultural Influences On Styles Of Writing And Presenting Ideas

Geography, history and culture of Thailand , or even northern Thailand , would only be relevant if it explained significant points in the population pattern, and should only be introduced into the thesis when the data required explanation. Yet to the Thai student this direct ‘English' approach seemed too blunt. It went against all his training in which a gradual approach to the central issues was preferred.

Although Kaplan was writing about differences in writing styles which arise from differences in national cultures, it is also true that each academic discipline is, to some extent, a 'sub-culture' in itself. Even in the `international' languages of mathematics and science, there are significant differences within the branches of these disciplines, not just in the content of what is being studied but also in the acceptable ways of presenting that content in writing. For example, there are standard models for writing papers and reports in Chemistry and in Engineering, but they are different.

And within each ­discipline there will be different criteria for deciding what is relevant; for example, what must be summarized in the Introduction and what can be included merely by a reference to previously pu­blished research. In both cases the stylistic aim will be brevity and ­clarity; but the way in which the material is presented, the use statistics, of formulae, of graphic and illustrative material will a glance at journals in these two disciplines shows. In the Social Sciences and Humanities the differences between disciplines are even more marked.

So a student who is studying more than one discipline, maybe a first year student enrolled in courses in Zoology, Psychology. His­tory and Sociology, must learn the styles acceptable to each of these four sub-cultures. The problem of coping with a range of disciplines is discussed in this comment by a Bangladesh undergraduate:

I'd like to draw the reader's attention to one particular point: the reason for my fruitful progress can be mainly due to the fact I have devoted my three years of study to one particular subject. i.e. Biology. I would think that people who are doing, say, a combined Economics and Agriculture course, or Forestry and Computing, etc.

Would have to encounter much more problems than I have because then they'd have to be reading/writing in two dimensions throughout ­ their study period, as I gather there are ways of writing a Com­ puting assignment that are not particularly suitable in writing a Forestry field report.