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Kaplan S Diagram

The document discusses Robert Kaplan's typology of five cultural models for organizing arguments and structuring papers: (1) linear North American, (2) parallel Semitic, (3) circular Oriental, (4) digressive Romance and German, and (5) freedom-allowing Russian. While useful for illuminating rhetorical differences, the models have been criticized for overgeneralizing cultures and not reflecting today's diversity. However, students still find the models illuminating and useful for developing their own cultural writing styles.

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257 views1 page

Kaplan S Diagram

The document discusses Robert Kaplan's typology of five cultural models for organizing arguments and structuring papers: (1) linear North American, (2) parallel Semitic, (3) circular Oriental, (4) digressive Romance and German, and (5) freedom-allowing Russian. While useful for illuminating rhetorical differences, the models have been criticized for overgeneralizing cultures and not reflecting today's diversity. However, students still find the models illuminating and useful for developing their own cultural writing styles.

Uploaded by

Gat Torena
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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BUILDING AN ARGUMENT ACROSS CULTURES

In a typology of cultural writing patterns of ESL students, Robert Kaplan identifies five
models for organizing a paper and structuring an argument:

(1) North American (English) argumentative writing is linear, direct and to the point,
with the thesis statement/claim at the beginning of the argument, and supporting
arguments arranged hierarchically.

(2) Semitic argumentative writing (Jewish, Arabic, Armenian) presents the argument in
parallel propositions, or embedded in stories, not in hierarchical progression.

(3) Oriental (Asian) argumentative writing approaches the argument in a circular,


respectful, indirect, non-assertive, but authoritative way.

(4) Romance (and German) argumentative writing favor a digressive style that requires
readers to follow the argument to its conclusion. 1

(5) Russian argumentative writing follows the Romance model, but with more freedom
for dividing the pieces of the argument as the author proceeds to the conclusion.

Kaplan’s model of “contrastive rhetoric” is a generic typology of cultural writing patterns, not an
endorsement of one cultural style over against another. However, language teachers have
sometimes used this typology to privilege the American academic writing style as the superior
rhetoric and to render the others inferior to it. In recent years this model has been critiqued for its
tendency toward cultural caricature and its failure to reflect the broader multiculturalism and
linguistic diversity that international students draw upon when they write in a new language.
However, many students continue to find these models useful for illuminating rhetorical
differences between writing cultures and for developing their own cultural writing models when
Kaplan’s categories do not fit their own contexts.

Which of these models fits your cultural writing background? What model would you
propose if yours is not here?

1
See Robert Kaplan, “Cultural Thought Patterns in Intercultural Education,” Language Learning 16
(1966): 1-20, from which the figure is taken. Leo Loveday, The Sociolinguistics of Learning and Using a
Non-Native Language (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1982), 75-76, extends the pattern to German discourse.

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