Mosher's "Creating a Common Ground with ESL Writers"

As I mentioned in my previous post, Mosher's article includes some suggestions that may be useful to me for my final project. Although it is about non-native speakers trying to write in English it also sometimes applies to English speakers who are trying to write in Spanish.

Mosher states that there is a difference in rhetorical patterns in different languages. He also says that because of this it is appropriate "to use a more directed approach" (p. 1). When he writes this he is referring to the type of approach that should be used in a tutoring session but for my purposes I am reading it as a suggestion about what kind of advice I should include in my project. If non-native speakers need a more directed approach in a tutoring session then it follows that I should give more explicit, directive advice on my Writing-in-the-Disciplines page.

Later, Mosher also suggests "that a cultural dialogue about writing and rhetoric may prove to be a useful collaborative strategy" (p. 3). By starting a page about writing in Spanish I hope to begin this cultural dialogue and provide writers with helpful guidelines for writing in Spanish that will help them write better papers by understanding cultural differences.

Another difference Mosher points out is, "The writing expectations of Americans often do not match the linguistic and cultural norms found in other cultures. This difference occurs in both what should be said in writing as well as in how to say it" (p. 4). This means that the expectations about how an American student should write a Spanish essay may be somewhat different from how that same should student should write an English essay. I hope to get some suggestions from professors about what kind of differences might exist in regard to this.

The last comment that I immediately thought might be useful was Mosher's suggestion about mapping. He says to "set the paper aside and concentrate on mapping out ideas" (p. 7). I thought this could be a helpful technique for writers who are struggling to begin or are overwhelmed by the task of beginning a paper in a foreign language.