EXERCISE 4
- TEAM EXERCISE Pair with another student for this research project on multicultural communication styles. Follow these steps:
- Working by yourself, enter the name of a country and the word business in a search engine. For example, enter “Nicaragua business.” Find the website of a business in that country, and then print out the About the Company page or some similar page, such as Mission or Projects. Or enter the name of a country and the word government, such as “Nicaragua government.” Find a government agency in that country that has published a report available on the Internet. Print several pages of the report.
- On your copy of the pages you have printed, disguise the country of origin by blacking out the name of the company or government agency and any other information that would indicate the country of origin.
- Exchange pages with your partner. Study your partner’s pages. Do the pages show a different strategy of persuasion than you would expect from a U.S. writer? For instance, does the writer support his or her claims with the kinds of evidence you would expect to see in the United States? Is the information organized as you would expect? Does the writer create a persona that you would expect to see?
- Meet with your partner and explain to him or her what you see in the pages that is similar to or different from what you would expect if the document came from the United States. Ask your partner whether he or she saw the same things. Present your findings in a memo to your instructor.