Global Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

A Contrastive Genre Analysis of Iranian and American English News Reports

Mohammad Jafar Jabbari and Sajjad Farokhipour

Considering the importance of cross-cultural rhetorical conventions, the present study is an attempt to conduct a contrastive genre analysis between the English newspapers written in Iran and that in the United States in order to find the major rhetorical similarities and differences between them. The analysis is based on a corpus of 120 news reports from two sets of newspapers (Iran Daily and Tehran times from Iran and Washington Post and New York Times form United States of America). Utilizing an analytical framework, the researcher analyzes the variability of rhetorical and structural patterns within Iranian and American news reports. It is concluded that the news reports of Iranian and American English newspapers are different in their rhetorical and structural organizations because in the Iranian news reports, unlike their American counterparts, certain moves are absent due to their different position, purpose and institutional practice. This study has pedagogical implications for teaching journalistic English, EFL students and teachers and news translators.