A Comparative Genre Analysis Of English Cover Letters Written By The Chinese And The English

In recent years, following the development of stylistic analysis and discourse analysis, more and more linguists have come to realize the importance of communicative purpose and language strategy in discourse analysis. Consequently, the genre analysis that focuses on the study of communicative purpose and language strategy has become a significant topic in the field of linguistic research. The cover letter is one sub-category of specific letters used to assist applicants concerning interview opportunities. Besides being a certain type of social letter it is also part of the research category of genre analysis. However, at present the domestic research of cover letters mainly focuses on the comparative analysis between Chinese and English cover letters. Studies concerning comparative analysis of English cover letters written by the Chinese and the English are limited. Therefore, this thesis intends to conduct the aforementioned contrastive study to fill that particular gap.There are three research purposes in the present study. The first is to explore the question whether there are differences in the move analysis for the English cover letters written by the Chinese and the English. The second is to find out the reason why the differences exist or why not. The writer tries to analyze this matter from the perspective of the culture factor. The third consists of the writer's search for some pedagogical implications to guide writing teachers.The data of the present research include thirty English cover letters written by the Chinese and thirty English cover letters written by the English. The thesis analyses sixty English cover letters from the move analysis and strategy analysis then summarizes the similarities and differences of the two kinds of English cover letters, while summing up the cultural factors which cause the differences. The result of this contrastive study demonstrates the existence of certain differences. The generic structure of the English cover letters written by the Chinese is more complex than that written by the English, with fourteen moves in the letters written by the Chinese and ten moves in the letters written by the English. There are also differences with regard to strategy analysis. Finally, the thesis examines the main reasons that cause the differences from the perspective of the social cultural level; that is, the differences between the annular modes and linear modes of thinking respectively, individualism and collectivism, sense of hierarchy and sense of equality. Based on the above research, it is hoped that the research findings can offer some guidance to the Chinese writers. It also shows the enlightenment for ESP teaching and cross-cultural communication to help the English learners in China to improve their language ability.