Written Communication Oct 1997

Text Organization by Bilingual Writers: Clause Structure as a Reflection of Discourse Structure

MARY J. SCHLEPPEGRELL ; M. CECILIA COLOMBI

Abstract

This article compares essays written in Spanish and English by bilingual writers whose prior formal academic writing instruction has been only in English. The authors describe both writers' discourse-organizational and clause-combining strategies, showing that one writer's organizational structure reflects explicit planning, whereas the other employs a more emergent organizational structure for her essays. In each case, these choices are the same for Spanish and English. Analyzing these writers' clause-combining strategies demonstrates that organizational structure at the discourse level is reflected in the types of clause combinations chosen by the writers at the sentence level, with one writer using more simple sentences and embedded clauses and the other using more hypotactic and paratactic clause combinations. The article demonstrates how clauses constitute and reflect the structure of texts and suggests that development of a repertoire of styles and discourse strategies depends on control of a variety of syntactic options.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
1997-10-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088397014004003
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
discourse analysis writing pedagogy multilingual writers
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Maxwell-Reid (2011)
    The Challenges of Contrastive Discourse Analysis: Reflecting on a Study into th…
    Written Communication

References (26)

  1. Beaman, K.
    Coherence in spoken and written discourse
  2. Belcher, D.
    Academic writing in a second language
  3. Berry, W.
    The gift of good land: Further essays cultural and agricultural
  4. Chafe, W.
    Literacy, language, and learning: The nature and consequences of reading and writing
  5. Colombi, C.
    La enseñanza del español a hispanohablantes
Show all 26 →
  1. Crystal, D.
    Studies in English linguistics
  2. Cummins, J.
    The multicultural classroom
  3. Finegan, E.
    Social and cognitive perspectives on language
  4. Fuentes, C.
    El espejo enterrado
  5. Goffman, E.
    Forms of talk
  6. Halliday, M.A.K.
    Text processing: Text analysis and generation, text typology and attribution
  7. Halliday, M.A.K.
    Comprehending oral and written language
  8. Halliday, M.A.K.
    Spoken and written language
  9. Halliday, M.A.K.
    An introduction to functional grammar
  10. Mann, W. C.
    Discourse description: Diverse linguistic analyses of a fund-raising text
  11. Martin, J. R.
    Factual writing
  12. Matthiessen, C.
    The structure of discourse and “subordination.”
     ↗
  13. 10.1177/002383097601900401
     ↗
  14. 10.1093/applin/17.3.271
     ↗
  15. Shaughnessy, M. P.
    Errors and expectations: A guide for the teacher of basic writing
  16. Swales, J.
    Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings
     ↗
  17. Thompson, S.
    Meaning, form, and use in context: Linguistic applications
  18. Thompson, S. A.
    Language typology and syntactic description
  19. van Dijk, T. A.
    Text and context
  20. van Dijk, T. A.
    Macrostructures
  21. Ventola, E.
    Academic writing
     ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 16 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related Articles

  1. Assessing Writing Jan 2026
    Assessing the effects of explicit coherence instruction on EFL students’ integrated writing performance ↗
    Xi Li; Mo Chen
    discourse analysis writing pedagogy graduate education teacher development assessment empirical research multilingual writers
  2. Technical Communication Quarterly Oct 2024
    Editors’ Use of Comprehensive Style Guides: The Case of Singular They ↗
    Jo Mackiewicz; Shaya Kraut; Allison Durazzi
    rhetorical criticism discourse analysis first-year composition writing pedagogy graduate education teacher development writing centers technical communication professional writing digital rhetoric multilingual writers grammar and mechanics literacy studies race and writing public rhetoric editorial matter
  3. Writing and Pedagogy Apr 2024
    The affordances of language choice in negotiation of oral peer feedback on L2 writing ↗
    Avary Carhill-Poza; Lili Tian; Jesse Rubio
    discourse analysis writing pedagogy multilingual writers book reviews
  4. The Peer Review Jan 2023
    Under the “We” Umbrella: Inclusive and Exclusive “We” Language in the Writing Center ↗
    Michelle A. Marvin
    rhetorical criticism discourse analysis writing pedagogy graduate education collaborative writing writing centers peer tutoring multilingual writers editorial matter
  5. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly Dec 2022
    Participation Styles, Turn-Taking Strategies, and Marginalization in Intercultural Decision-Making Discourse ↗
    Josef Williamson
    discourse analysis writing pedagogy multilingual writers