Warren #5

I don't think there are disadvantages to contrastive rhetoric per se - but disadvantages can arise from the generalizations instructors make that are based on CR. In another class, I read a wonderful analogy about the discoveries researchers have made about writing: "As Linda Flower puts it, because we are trying to chart and analyze an activity that goes on largely out of sight, the process is rather like trying to trace the path of a dolphin by catching glimpses of it when it leaps out of the water. We are seeing only a tiny part of the whole process; but from it we can infer much about what is going on beneath the surface" (Hairston, 1994, p. 123). I feel that the process of learning more about CR is quite similar - we have learned quite a bit, but there's so much more at play that we cannot see or observe.

Has the issue of CR come up in my tutoring/teaching? I'm not sure. Oftentimes, it's not so much a writing issue as it is the culture of the student behind the writing. For instance, just this week I worked with a doctoral student who is applying for jobs. She's struggling to write her cover letters and teaching philosophy statement, for two reasons: 1) for the past five years she's become accustomed to writing coursework papers and manuscripts for publication, i.e. writing with a "muffled" voice; and 2) culturally, as a Korean, she is not used to touting her individualism and the unique creativity that only she can bring to the job she's applying for. In short, these issues can't be attributed to the traditional "squiggles" of Kaplan, but they are indeed related to cross-cultural writing. In this sense, I feel the cultural tracings that affected my Korean student's ability to write her cover letter and teaching philosophy are similar to those of Brice's Phillip; however, unfortunately for my student, her cultural leanings will be subsumed by the US academic milieu. She will simply have to adapt.