Blog#6 by Kaier Feng

My mother tongue is chinese, a pretty complicate language which requires students to accept the knowledge of both classical and modern literature, as well as polished expression of different kinds of sentence for higher education. It seems to be totally different between English and Chinese in terms of organization and expression. What should be pointed out is that quoting a famous sentence literally with the citation is regarded as a sign of respect to source, which is opposite to the rule of English. Actually I have many troubles in dealing with writing in my first language, one of which is organization, the same problem in English writhing. I am quite confused about how can I use diverse conjunctions in the appropriate position and about the included logic between sentences. In addition, I can not well acclimate to the expression of English style on account of the different grama and form. For instance, I want to express the idea raised in my mind, but I have to translate the Chinese expression to English, which makes the sentence into bad structure. I think I need to strengthen my ability of organization and expression and the most useful lessons is the summary of many critical articles, which actually makes me more logic and better expression. 

I am really confused with the tactics of citation and the specific rule of conduct. Comparing with the norms in China, which also takes the intellectual property and originality into account, I find that it is not as strict as the norms in America, which brings plagiarism into “a big moral issue”. It makes sense if we think about the diverse culture backgrounds. The most typical difference is the usage of textbook. In china, textbook is in the status of authority, so students have to repeat the important content word by word in order to get grades in a test. Consequently, It is kind of hard for Chinese to distinguish what actions are regarded as a violation of the norms of conduct and what actions are totally fine like the author in the article “Cheating Across Cultures said.