Investigating Rhetorical Aspects of Writing Argumentative Essays and Persuasive Posters: Students’ Perspective

Students at the tertiary level need arguments because they are expected to use analytical and critical thinking skills. The present study is situated in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context in an Omani University and reports the experience of (N=46) undergraduate EFL writers in argumentative essays and persuasive posters. Using rhetorical strategies, and drawing on the principles of persuasive writing, the participants prepared posters and essays on two separate topics. Data were collected from the 46 participants’ responses to a semi-structured online survey questionnaire. Analysis of the data obtained indicates that the participants preferred designing posters to writing persuasive essays while reporting varieties of rhetorical difficulties in building an argument for persuasion. The participants also perceived establishing evidence and facts as the most challenging element in persuasive writing and arousing the audience’s feelings and emotions as the most challenging rhetorical appeal in posters. Some pedagogical implications were reported as well.

THEME AND RHEME ANALYSIS AND POLITENESS STRATEGY IN DIPLOMATIC WORKPLACE WRITING: A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

This study explores thematic progression patterns within the systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and the selection of words identified in writing within the diplomatic workplace. Politeness strategy employed between government to government communication through written diplomatic texts and its relationship with theme and rheme progression is the focus of this study. It is also aimed at raising host country EFL diplomat as well as university students’ awareness of progression patterns and the importance of persuasive writing to mitigate confrontational notions. Many researches have been conducted on public diplomacy and international relations on speeches or verbal texts but no studies on written text communication between a diplomatic office in a foreign country with the host country office announcing the arrival or departure of a diplomat from a foreign nation. To fill that gap is the reason of this study is aiming. A descriptive qualitative study was employed to analyze the theme-rheme progression patterns on a third-party-type diplomatic text of the Embassy of the United States of America addressed to the host country diplomatic consular section of the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia in Jakarta. SFL theory was applied particularly in analyzing the textual meta-function of the text to find the theme-rheme progression patterns. The result showed that the distribution of themes and rhemes in the text being analyzed follows the simple progression category.

Whites and Browns: A Contrastive Study of Metadiscourse in English Newspaper Editorials

Metadiscourse is an interesting field of inquiry which is believed to play a vital role in organizing and producing persuasive writing. It is a set of linguistic devices used to communicate attitudes and mark the structural properties of a text. The study aimed to investigate whether native and non-native varieties of English varieties are similar or different from each other from the perspective of interactional meta-discourse markers. The study as contrastive rhetoric research scrutinized a corpus of 900 newspapers editorials (450 written in native English newspapers and 450 written in non-native English newspapers). Editorials were culled from 15 native English newspapers belonging to three native English countries, England, America and New Zealand, and 15 non-native English newspapers belonging to three non-native English countries, Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka. Based on the model of metadiscourse given by Hyland (2005), interactional metadiscoursive resources were analyzed. The frequencies of interactional metadiscourse markers in both native and non-native varieties were counted and compared with each other. The results disclosed that there were worth-pointing differences between the native and non-native English editorialists in the use of interactional metadiscourse markers. Two different varieties of English editorials showed variations particularly in the use of hedging and self-mention markers. On the whole, findings suggested that the use of interactional metadiscourse markers in native English editorials were more frequent than those in non-native English editorials which made their writings more appealing and convincing. Keywords: metadiscourse, native, non-native, newspaper, editorials

Using a Technology-Based Graphic Organizer to Improve the Planning and Persuasive Paragraph Writing by Adolescents With Disabilities and Writing Difficulties

A multiple-probe design was used to investigate the planning and persuasive paragraph writing by three secondary students with disabilities and writing difficulties. The intervention consisted of one-on-one explicit instruction in persuasive writing and the use of a technology-based graphic organizer (TBGO) with embedded strategies and supports. Dependent variables included the number of sentences and overall holistic writing quality. The results were mixed. Two adolescents with the primary diagnosis of learning disabilities improved their writing performance when using the TBGO and remained above baseline levels when the TBGO was removed. One more participant diagnosed with autism demonstrated modest changes in the quantity and quality of his writing. Students reported positive perceptions of the TBGO indicating a socially valid intervention. Implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.

PECULIARITIES OF TRANSLATION OF ADVERTISING DISCOURSE TEXTS IN THE PERIOD OF GLOBALIZATION

The article presents a comprehensive analysis of advertising texts and their functioning in the process of globalization. Certain aspects of linguistic and stylistic means of advertising texts and peculiarities of their translation are traced. The influence of advertising as a cultural phenomenon is proved. The analysis of the structure and features of advertising texts was carried out based on such research methods as the descriptive method, the method of observation, the method of comparison, the method of analysis and synthesis, the method of induction and deduction, and dictionary definition. Advertising has been found to have a significant impact on a globalized society, and virtually every culture is involved in this process. It plays a significant socio-cultural role in shaping the stereotypes that define the national mentality. Values are introduced through advertising. Translation of advertising texts is a very creative and complicated process that requires considering a set of factors. First of all, you need to understand that the main task of advertising texts is to sell goods, so they must be quite convincing and promote the emergence of vivid images in the minds of potential consumers. As a result of the analysis of advertising texts, we concluded that advertising is a vivid example of persuasive writing that can influence a globalized society. That is why the experience of understanding the globalization of advertising communications conveys spiritual experience in the form of models of consumer behavior and behavior in general and forms vital values. The study of advertising messages is a multifaceted, complicated process that requires consideration of the dynamics of advertising texts. Therefore, there is a need to analyze the linguistic and stylistic features of advertising texts. Translation of advertising differs from all others in form, language, and pronounced communicative direction. In translating advertising, the translator must solve not only linguistic problems but also sociolinguistic adaptation, because the perception of the world's picture in each culture is different.