Philippine E-Journals

Contrastive Rhetorical Analysis of School Paper Lead Stories in Philippine English, Spanish English and Indonesian English

Maria Cristina P. Mercado

Discipline: Literature, Languages

 

Abstract:

This paper presents an analysis of lead stories written in Philippine English, Spanish English, and Indonesian English. It attempts to determine the genre of school paper lead stories contained in three school papers through its organizational pattern. The analysis of data revealed that the stories follow a three-move structure: providing a summary, elaborating the report, and making a claim or stating a fact. The most notable pattern in the introduction is the use of the Who-What and When-What elements, whereas the concluding part is characterized by the inclusion of additional information, giving instructions, and making announcements. The minor contrasts that the stories exhibited may be attributed to the writers’ idiosyncratic style and approach in writing rather than their cultural orientation. 

The study suggests that contrastive rhetoric analysis may be beneficial not only in describing and interpreting the similarities and/or differences of text organization among different users of English, but also in looking into the potential role that culture plays in the production of written texts.