What Do We Mean By ‘Cultural Variations' In Styles of Thinking

The significant similarities and differences between these views, and then evaluate them. The Japanese student, however, took a very different approach. He began by describing, in detail, the family background and personal life of Friedman up to the time he pub­lished his economic analysis of postwar Europe . The points of this analysis were summarized briefly, without comment. Exactly the same information was given about Samuelson. And there the essay ended.

This essay would probably be criticized by an Australian lecturer in these terms: `What is the relevance of all this information?'; `You have not made any attempt to analyse or compare the two approaches'; ` What is your conclusion about the relative merits of each man's views? '; What evidence have you found to support either set of views?'. And the lecturer might dismiss this student as un ­promising because there were no signs in the essay that he could do more than summarize information - no sign, in short, of critical thinking.

When we discussed this essay draft, however, it became clear that the student had very deliberately organized his thinking and writing according to the way he had been trained to write essays in Japan. His aim in writing about Friedman and Samuelson was not to point out the strengths and weaknesses of their economic thinking (critical analysis).

Rather, his purpose was to create for the reader a har­monious understanding of the reasons why two eminent economists could reach conflicting judgements on economic planning. By describing the difference in their backgrounds, he was implicitly explaining how these conflicting viewpoints developed. So his `Japanese' purpose was very different from the `Australian' purpose intended by the lecturer.

The form of the essay was also different, as it lacked any conclusion which might have summarized the main points made in the body of the essay. In Japan , the student explained, he would not be expected to put forward his own critical evaluation of a controversy between eminent scholars. So once again the reason for this difference in the essay was not incompetence but a difference in cultural style. It would not be correct, he had been taught, to write a conclusion which tells the reader what he should think; that would be manners - a student should not impose his own views on his lecturer.

much academic argument

writing about Friedman

academic style appropriate