A Contrastive Genre Analysis Of Chinese And American University Introductions On Websites

Genre Analysis Theory put forward by Swales and Bhatia provides a new perspective for analyzing macrostructures and communicative purposes of specific purpose discourses. As specific purpose discourses aimed to publicize universities, improve reputation and influence of universities, university introductions on the websites also have their main communicative purposes and prominent genre structures. Chinese and American university introductions share similar communicative purposes and belong to the same genre, but it still remains to be seen what similarities and differences they have in genre structures. In order to improve the quality of the English version of the Chinese university introduction and make it closer to the international standard, it is necessary to carry on a contrastive genre analysis of the Chinese and American university introductions. In this way, similarities and differences are to be discovered and suggestions are to be put forward to the English version of the Chinese university introductions.Therefore, this study selects top100Chinese universities from www.cuaa.net Chinese university ranking and top100American universities from American National university ranking released by US News respectively. Then30universities are selected at random from each as investigated subjects. University introductions on these university websites are the data of this study. Move/Step analysis is mainly used to make a separate analysis of Chinese and American university introductions. In light of language meaning and linguistic signals, moves or steps are identified. According to this study, all the moves, obligatory and optional moves occurring in both Chinese and American university introductions are predominantly similar. Moreover, move sequences are not categorically linear; there are deviations of move reversion, repetition and cycle. Nevertheless, in a specific university introduction, the most common situation is that not all moves occur. Moves occurring in Chinese university introductions are more full-scale, and move sequences are more uniform while moves occurring in American university introductions are not particular about mentioning all the aspects and move sequences are of more arbitrariness. Frame theory is employed to explain these similarities and differences. Frames are mental structures ingrained in our minds and reflect our values. People of different cultures have different frames as well as values."Frame of sale" is utilized here to explain the similarities of move structures between Chinese and American university introductions. Collectivism in China and individualism in America determine the characteristic that Chinese advocate conformity while Americans follow individuality to a large extent. This is why Chinese university introductions uphold uniformity of moves and move sequences while American university introductions are eager to make their uniqueness stand out more.In terms of these similarities and differences, several suggestions are put forward in order to improve the quality of the English version of university introductions on Chinese university websites. For example, organize the English version of the Chinese university introduction in English thinking pattern instead of simply translating the Chinese version. Minor moves can be cut off. For moves whose contents are too long to introduce, it is better to simply mention the key points in the introduction while the details can be hyperlinked.