ASp

la revue du GERAS
37-38 | 2002
Rédactologie - Situations d'apprentissage

Technical vs. academic writing in English –

Any difference for non-native writers?
Ines A. Busch-Lauer

Electronic version
URL: http://journals.openedition.org/asp/1454
DOI: 10.4000/asp.1454 ISBN:
978-2-8218-0390-9
ISSN: 2108-6354

Publisher
Groupe d'étude et de recherche en anglais de spécialité

Printed version
Date of publication: 30 December 2002
Number of pages: 37-46
ISSN: 1246-8185

Electronic reference
Ines A. Busch-Lauer, « Technical vs. academic writing in English – Any difference for non-native
writers? », ASp [Online], 37-38 | 2002, Online since 21 July 2010, connection on 30 April 2019. URL :
http://journals.openedition.org/asp/1454 ; DOI : 10.4000/asp.1454

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 Technical vs. academic writing in English – Any difference for non-native wri... 1

Technical vs. academic writing in

English – Any difference for
non- native writers?
Ines A. Busch-Lauer

1. Introduction
1 Writing processes and written genres have been the subject of applied linguistic
research for quite some time. However, there is still controversy of opinions
regarding the factors which influence the writing process of non-native speakers of
English (NNSE) in L2 and the factors which dominate their text products (cf. the
research of Kaplan 1966; Galtung 1985; Clyne 1987, 1991; Gläser 1990; Gnutzmann/
Lange 1990, Connor 1996; Swales 1990;
Ventola/ Mauranen 1991; Huckin 1997; Hutz 1997; Trumpp 1998).
2
This paper is devoted to a preliminary text analysis of NNSE text samples.
Since the linguistic material is limited, the results of this study will only have a
preliminary character and require further research. The paper focuses on the
investigation of three major questions that result from the ESP-teaching experience
of the author in academic and technical writing to a German native-speaker
audience.
1. Is L2-writing predominantly determined by the language skills (both in L1 and L2) and
the (inter)cultural experience of the writer, or is it rather a matter of genre
awareness?
2. Do L2-texts of various genres and fields contain similar or different writing
3 problems?
3. Are there any differences for non-native writers when writing technical and academic
texts in English?

To provide an answer to these questions, we first examine some results of applied

LSP and writing research. In the second part of the paper, randomly selected

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 Technical vs. academic writing in English – Any difference for non-native wri... 2

tries to investigate the role of native and foreign languages, of genre and
discipline constraints and of audience awareness in English texts produced by
German authors.
1.1. Genres – A Brief Review of the Concept

4 The notion of genre as a basic concept to describe various classes of texts has
been defined by Swales (1990) and Gläser (1990). In his comprehensive investigation
on genres, Swales states that
A genre comprises a class of communicative events, the members of which
share some set of communicative purposes. These purposes are recognized by
the expert members of the parent discourse community, and thereby constitute
the rationale for the genre. This rationale shapes the schematic structure of the
discourse and influences and constrains choice of content and style.
Communicative purpose is both a privileged criterion and one that operates
to keep the scope of a genre as here conceived narrowly focused on
comparable rhetorical action. In addition to purpose, exemplars of a genre
exhibit various patterns of similarity in terms of structure, style, content and
intended audience. If all high probability expectations are realized, the
exemplar will be viewed as prototypical by the parent discourse community.
(1990: 58)
5
This definition already indicates that the genre has specific textual and extra-textual
features that enable communication between the writer as a member of a
certain discourse community and the reader. Therefore, adherence to the specific
characteristics of a genre is important for the writer in order to make the
6
intention of the text clear.
Gläser (1990) refers to genres as classes of texts that have developed historically
and pursue a common communicative function recognised by the experts and
members of a specific language community, e.g. scientists, technical writers or
other expert and laypeople. This in fact means that writers have to consider the
genre as a dominating factor with regard to textual communication which is due
to the communicative intention of the author, the purpose of the text and its
7
specific focus on a selected audience.
This dynamic character of genres is also considered by Huckin who states that
genres are […] responsive to the rhetorical demands of particular situations. And
inasmuch as particular situations invoke culture-specific features, genres
8
themselves are
culture-sensitive. This view explains, among other things, how ‘genres change over
time to their users’sociocognitive needs’. (1997: 77)
The analysis of texts and genres has resulted in various attempts to classify these
types of texts. The most prominent German attempts in this respect were by Gläser
(1990: 50), Göpferich (1995: 90) and Horn-Helf (1999: 153). Gläser classifies
written genres into subject-internal and subject-external genres. Within the subject-
internal genres, she subclassifies informative, interpersonal, directive and
didactic texts. Didactic, popularising and directive texts are part of the subject-
9 external communication. Using this subclassification, she then assigns prominent
academic genres and describes selected criteria.
Göpferich (1995: 90) restricts her classification of genres to the natural sciences and
technology. Her hierarchical model distinguishes 5 classification levels, each
applying a different classification criterion. The classification criterion at the highest

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 Technical vs. academic writing in English – Any difference for non-native wri... 3

texts and genres according to their specific communicative intention into primary
(e.g. report, scientific paper, instruction) and secondary genres (e.g., abstracts,
summary, book review).
10 In contrast to these hierarchically structured approaches, Horn-Helf (1999: 153) lists
the genres occurring most frequently in the translation practice. She combines this
list with a thorough description of source and target text errors which provides
writers and translators with an insight into the specific textual, linguistic and
cultural criteria which they should focus on in their text production process. Among
these texts are text types like instructions and reports but also technical genres
such as technical manuals, patents, support agreements and the like.
11 Nonetheless, considering the current results provided by LSP research in the
field of genre description and classification, one can think that they prove to be too
theoretical for teaching purposes. The currently existing classifications and
descriptions do not effectively help writers in their daily practice (neither in their
mother tongue nor in English) because they do not provide generalised text
components and stylistic advice.
12
For this reason LSP genre research has to focus on specific subjects in order to
determine the most prominent genres used in them and to make these the subject of
contrastive analyses (for example German-English). In this way the specific
linguistic, text organisational and, if possible, culture-specific criteria can be figured
out. These can be taught to novice writers and experts in order to improve their
texts in L2. This process requires the co-operation of linguists and professionals of
the field to avoid linguistic research being one-sided and representing the
subjective view of the linguistic researcher only.
13
Text analyses and comparisons will eventually be the basis for the development
of specific writing materials and result in a thorough classification of genres for a
specific subject and in various disciplines.
1.2. Writing Difficulties

14 Everyone teaching writing has a vague idea of the kind of mistakes that may
occur in texts written by NNSE. The study performed by Jordan (1997: 46) provides
an overview of the writing difficulties encountered by students from their own
judgement and from their tutor’s point of view. Interestingly, the opinions
between these groups differ. Among the highly rated difficulties seen from the
point of view of the interviewed students were: vocabulary (62 %), style (53 %),
spelling (41 %), grammar (38 %), punctuation (18 %) and handwriting (12 %). By
contrast, the tutors of these students considered style as the most problematic
factor (92 %), outweighing grammar (77 %), vocabulary (70 %), handwriting (31 %),
punctuation (23 %) and spelling (23 %). Jenkins/ Jordan/ Weiland (1993) consider the
evaluation criteria for native (NSE) and non-native speakers of English (NNSE)
texts at several engineering faculties in the USA. Their research revealed that
only 36 % of the tutors used a different scale to evaluate NSE texts in English. The
criteria for which they applied a ‘milder’ evaluation were: grammar/ sentence
structure, appropriate vocabulary, punctuation and spelling and overall writing
ability. Tutors rated the texts of NSE and NNSE almost in the same way with
regard to contents, the structured and logical presentation of arguments and a clear
statement of the problem and its solution.

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 Technical vs. academic writing in English – Any difference for non-native wri... 4

15 The research by Clyne (1987a, b) revealed that there are obviously more criteria
that influence the quality of the text seen from the recipients’ point of view.
Among these factors are linearity, symmetry, continuity which seem to be
typical of native English writing style.
16 In the second part of the paper, I will consider some of the problems German writers
have when writing English texts and use a few sample texts for this purpose. I will
then try to provide answers to the questions raised in the introduction of this
paper. However, emphasis should be made on the fact that the linguistic sample on
which this paper is based is very small. No definitive conclusion can therefore
be drawn.
2. Analysis of Academic and Technical Texts – Some
Preliminary Results
In the following part of this paper I will consider some texts written by German
17 experts (linguists, medical researchers and students as well as technical writers)
with regard to some of their textual flaws in order to illustrate writing problems. The
first text which is considered is a medical abstract of a case report written by a
team of German medical researchers. When writing an abstract, writers usually
have to adhere to strict instructions to authors if they want to publish in an
international journal. The sample text is taken from a German medical journal in
which authors have to submit English abstracts for their articles. Abstracts are
restricted in their length; therefore, the authors have to carefully select the
information they want to provide to their readers. Since abstracts do not always
accompany the scientific article, they should be self-explanatory and function as
stand-alone texts.
Sample 1:

Summary: Besides the lungs, the liver is the second most common site
of haematogenous metastases from carcinomata of the breast. Hepar
lobatum carcinomatum is the rarest form of metastatic liver disease.
Reported in this article is a case of a 59-year-old woman with invasive duct
carcinoma of the breast with metastasis to the axillar lymph nodes
and liver, treated with ablatio mammae and combination of
chemotherapy. The etiology of hepar lobatum is caused by multiple
pathogenetic factors. Tumor-related multifocal obstruction of portal
and hepatic venous vessels and effects of chemotherapy are
discussed.

18
Commentary:
The sample text fails the above-mentioned intention due to some deficiencies. First
of all, one can notice that the author uses an unusual sequence of sentences (no
topic sentence as in an English abstract, no explication of problem and solution). The
sentence structure used results from direct negative transfer of German patterns into
English (cf. italicised passages).
19
Moreover, the abstract suffers from a lack of coherence and cohesion. Each sentence
seems to be unrelated to the others. The passive voice (commonly used in
German scientific texts) is also transferred into the English text, thus resulting in an
unusually long construction in the last sentence.
Sample 2:

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 Technical vs. academic writing in English – Any difference for non-native wri... 5

Summary: Understandability of texts and chemical contents is not

self- contradictory. This investigation shows that understandable texts
with chemical contents are realizable, but they are not realized. It is a long
way to go about it, especially concerning school-book-texts. With regard to
the usual difficulties of students in reading and understanding chemical
school-book- texts the rewritten text gives the opportunity of
counteracting failures and supporting the learning process.

Commentary:
20 The second text under investigation was written by a German linguist who is
experienced in writing scientific articles. However, as can be seen from the text, the
abstract suffers from a number of insufficiencies including an unclear understanding
of what purpose an abstract serves: unclear wording (e.g. understandability,
realizable, school-book-text), redundancy (e.g., realizable, realized), stylistic
insufficiency (it is a long way to go about it… give the opportunity), long sentence
structure, no logical argumentation.
Sample 3:
During the last years the attention of many scientists has been drawn again
to an inflammatory illness of the skin called atopic eczema. The illness known
already in the classical antiquity has had many names in the course of
time that are still being used, e.g. [...]. Today the term “atopic
eczema” prevails in scientific publications because it describes the
eczema occurring in atopics without suggesting a certain
pathophysiological mechanism. However, there are some new starting points
for the therapy of atopic eczema and although atopic
eczema is still incurable at the moment the therapies might bring relief to the
people suffering from it. According to a study of Prof. Wuthrich and U.W.
Schnyder, Zurich, atopic eczema has increased worldwide during the last years.
Today the risk for newborns to be affected by this illness of the skin
is already 5-15% if both
parents are healthy. In cases of both parents suffering from atopic
eczema even 60-80% of the children will have the illness, too. This
paper will give a short review on the illness affecting so many people in the
world, especially the current pathophysiological concepts of atopic eczema as
21 well as other factors that are
being discussed to have an impact on the illness.

Commentary:
The third sample text was written by a German medical student as an introduction to
a project which in fact resembles a scientific article (at least one can trace the
moves described by Swales, e.g. stating the problem/ topic, establishing referenced to
previous scientific work, announcing the specific topic of the article). Thus, the
textual organisation seems to be fairly adequate, considering the experience a third-
year student of medicine may have with this genre. However, one can clearly
detect, inter alia, grammatical infelicities.
Sample 4:
Mankind needs a common language to survive. Is this true? Why we
can’t translate like we have the last thousand years ago? Today there
are more international relations, more international business than in the
last years. We speak about a united Europe, we travel all around the
world. This causes translating official papers, scientific works, time
tables, holiday descriptions into many languages. But translations cost

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 Technical vs. academic writing in English – Any difference for non-native wri... 6

natural languages is that if we decide for one the speakers of some

others will protest against this decision and ignore the common
language. This has reasons in history or national proudness. And, by
which facts should made this decision? By the number of speakers, then
we have to take Chinese, by the economic influence, then we have to
take English or German, by the easiest way to learn this language? The
problem with artificial languages is, that at the beginning there are
nearly no speakers and so nobody has a strong motivation to learn
these languages. I think English would be a good decision, because today
it is used at many different fields: in the sciences, in the air traffic, at
business conferences, in the wireless communication in the army, for
instance. We should not ignore this.
But I don’t think that everybody must speak English or an other
common language. Some people, who live only in their little village and
never meet a foreigner, don’t need this. At all I think we should not
make to strong regulations, the "best“ language will get common
alone.
22
Commentary:
Text sample 4 is part of an essay written by a German student for an English
language course and deals with the importance of learning foreign languages. The
text has a clear structure: it first announces the topic and raises the questions
which the author considers relevant to discuss in this context, i.e. the initial part of
the essay addresses the problem. However, as one can already notice at the end
of the first paragraph, the author has difficulties expressing his thoughts
adequately and without making grammatical errors. Moreover, he uses a typical
German method to focus his readers’ attention to specific aspects: rhetorical
questions. German sentence patterns can be traced in “And if we decide for a natural,
which of them?” as well as in “And, by which facts should made his decision?”. NNSEs
obviously focus on the topic and neglect the language (in particular the grammar) or
they do not revise the text once they have finished writing it. Moreover, one can also
notice negative transfers from German into English in the use of punctuation
and of connectors.
Sample 5:
This document describes the requirements for XXX. This system is
the successor of XXX, primary consideration being given to the
requirements of the YYY groups XXX Payment System”. A problem
in the electronic commerce and mobile commerce areas -for
consumers as well as merchants and service providers -is secure
payment processing, since their relationship is of a temporary nature and
is restricted to the specific payment event. The consumer does not
want to disclose the confidential information of his payment
instrument to every merchant. On the other side, the merchant is
interested in ensuring successful payment by the consumer in a way
as simple as possible. The solution is to bring in a third party in the
role of Payment Provider who has a contractual relationship with
both the Consumer and the Merchant. In this constellation, payment
processing requires that the consumer have equipment to pro-vide
the necessary information about the payment instrument he is using.
When the consumer is physically present with the merchant, this can
be a point-of-sale data terminal for processing the consumer’s credit
card information. […]
The use of a server makes sense not only for mobile channels (WAP,
voice control by mobile phone/SMS) but also for the Internet, TV

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 Technical vs. academic writing in English – Any difference for non-native wri... 7

term data storage. Moreover, dispensing with local data storage reduces
security risks.

Commentary:
23 The last sample considered is a text written by a German technical writer in the
computer industry. The text can be considered as an initial draft which has not
yet undergone expert review. What can be noticed in this text is that the author
had some difficulty organising its contents.The sentences are fairly long and hard to
read.Connectors and cohesive elements are often missing. Moreover, due to several
grammatical deficiencies, the text is sometimes difficult to understand. This
causes the misunderstanding of sentences. Again we can also notice here that
the author does not know how to use cohesive elements and is not aware of how
much the English language system sometimes differs from the German.

3. Results
24 This brief analysis of the five text exemplars of this preliminary study shows that
there are common writing problems across the genres and disciplines which, in turn,
indicates that the quality of texts is strongly related to the language skills of the writer
and to his/ her writing experience. However, since the linguistic sample of this study
is small, the results of the analysis should only be considered indicative of some
problems that deserve further research. Among the most common types of
errors, which could be revealed in the samples, were the following:
• Wrong word selection and mistakes due to semantic/ phonetic similarity,
terminological inconsistency, redundancy, false friends,
• Problems on the syntagmatic level (deletions, incompatibility of constituents,
inconsistency in logical structure),
• Problems at the sentence level (inadequate wording, wrong negation, wrong association
between sentence elements, grammatical mistakes such as the incompatibility of subject and
predicate, wrong textual organization, too many long-winded sentences),
• Problems at the chunk level (logical inconsistency, for example in enumerations, logical
structuring, wrong textual cohesion, unclear theme-rheme demarcation),
• Problems at the text level (intertextual and logical contradictions, fairly unorganised
text patterns).

25 These insufficiencies can also be traced in the logical organisation of the textual
contents, the text structure and lay-out. Mistakes and flaws are often related to the
inadequate language proficiency of the writers and to a negative transfer of linguistic
elements from the mother tongue to the foreign language – a process that seems to
occur unconsciously. The authors of the five examples seem to have forgotten to
review their texts and to be fairly unaware of the fact that every text addresses a
specific audience. Most texts written by German writers are fairly writer-focused and
not reader-focused as native English texts generally are.
26 The presented texts also seem to be fairly determined by subject and genre
constraints. As a rule, medical texts follow a fairly strict sequence of chunk and
moves. The essayistic text, in contrast, follows a fairly open pattern of
argumentation – unlike English short essays.

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 Technical vs. academic writing in English – Any difference for non-native wri... 8

27 This investigation into medical, linguistic and technical text samples written by
German authors (mostly post-intermediate – early advanced level writers in English)
revealed that the language skills, experience and awareness of differences between
the two language systems are decisive factors for the quality of the written text.
Transfer of grammar patterns and sentences structures from L1 to L2 often
results in mistakes and inadequacies that hamper the reading process. Moreover, it
could be established that if system-related aspects differ significantly, the L2-
texts suffer from substantial deficiencies.
28 Genre awareness combined with knowledge about text structures plays an important
role for the target audience to better identify and understand the text.
Therefore, genre analyses should focus on the microtextual level and not simply on
the macrostructures. Another important observation is related to the fact that the
more the writing relied on translation performed by laypeople, the worse the
quality of the text because unprofessional authors often simply transfer the
structures used in their mother tongue to the foreign language.
29 With regard to the questions raised at the beginning of this article we can state
the following:
30 Is L2-writing predominantly determined by the language skills (both in L1 and L2) and
the (inter)cultural experience of the writer, or is it rather a matter of genre
awareness?
31
Texts of various genres and fields seem to present similar writing problems.
These problems relate to the structure of the paragraphs, the cohesion used in the
32
texts and the sentence focus.
This result indicates that there are culturally determined similarities and differences
which originate from the different educational backgrounds of the writer and the
expectation that there are no differences between one’s own and the foreign
33
language.
34
Do L2-texts of various genres and fields contain similar or different writing problems?
Texts of various genres and fields contain both similar and different writing problems
which are, among other things, due to the unclear communicative purposes of the
texts. For example, there are differences between descriptions (scientific
articles) and instructions (technical manuals). However, the more the texts are
standardised (cf. scientific abstracts), the more authors avoid any break of linguistic
rules and follow the provided instructions. Nonetheless, inexperienced writers do not
control their writing process because they often do not revise their texts beyond
avoiding misprints. Moreover, technical and academic texts are different
because of their different communicative purposes and textual organisation. Writing
35
academic prose and technical documentation also differs because of different
rules and language elements.
36
Are there any differences for non-native writers when writing technical and academic
texts in English?
Writing L2-academic and technical texts is not so different for the L2-authors
because in both cases they “struggle” with the foreign language system, the
language skills and the different cultural expectations. They need to consider the
different textual lay-out, the paragraph structure, cohesion, syntax and phrase level,
lexeme level and spelling. This is why learners of a foreign language should be

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 Technical vs. academic writing in English – Any difference for non-native wri... 9

short texts to complex and sophisticated communications. This, however, requires a

lot of time and effort which is often not available.
37 In writing classes both in the classroom and in the corporate environment, it
seems necessary first to determine the language level of the writer. Then the genres
and text types which have to be taught should be defined according to the specific
needs and the language level of the writer. For this purpose, it is also
necessary to analyse corresponding texts of these genres in the mother tongue
and the foreign language. The contents, audience and communicative intention
need to be clear. Then, the writing process can start. We also need a shift from
writer-oriented to reader-oriented writing because a number of NNSE cultures are
often writer-focused. Moreover, familiarity with the process (from planning to
revising) and with the required tools (dictionaries, grammar handbooks) is
necessary and should be taught. What is also needed is a more process-oriented
writing instruction with specific emphasis on text revision strategies. Towards that
end, better contrastive analyses regarding text types and genres are required in
order to increase the writers’ genre awareness of the writers (cf. Björk/
Räisänen 1996; Barker 1998).

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Barker, Thomas T. 1998. Writing Software Documentation. A Task-Oriented Approach. New York:
Prentice Hall.

Berkenkotter, C. & Thomas Huckin. 1995. Genre knowledge in disciplinary communication. Cognition/
Culture/ Power. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Ass.

Björk, Lennart & Christine Räisänen. 1996. Academic Writing. A University Writing Course.
Lund: Studentlitteratur.

Clyne, Michael. 1987a. ‘‘Discourse structures and discourse expectations: Implications for Anglo-
German academic communication in English’’. In Smith, Larry E. (ed.), Discourse across cultures.
Strategies in World Englishes. New York, London, Sydney, Tokyo: Elsevier Science Ltd, 73-
83.

Clyne, Michael. 1987b. ‘‘Cultural differences in the organization of academic texts. English
and German’’. Journal of Pragmatics 11, 211-247.

Clyne, Michael. 1991. ‘‘The sociocultural dimension -The dilemma of the German-speaking
scholar’’. In Schröder, Hartmut (ed.), Subject-oriented Texts. Language of special purposes and
text theory. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 49-67.

Connor, Ulla. 1996. Contrastive rhetoric. Cross-cultural aspects of second-language writing.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Galtung, Johan. 1985. ‘‘Struktur, Kultur und intellektueller Stil. Ein vergleichender Essay
über sachsonische, teutonische, gallische und nipponische Wissenschaft’’. In Wierlacher, Alois
(Hrsg.), Das Fremde und das Eigene. Prolegomena zu einer interkulturellen Germanistik. München:
Iudicium, 151-193.

Gläser, Rosemarie. 1990. Fachtextsorten im Englischen. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.

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Gnutzmann, Claus & Regina Lange. 1990. ‘‘Kontrastive Textlinguistik und Fachsprachenanalyse’’.
In Gnutzmann, Claus, Kontrastive Linguistik. [forum Angewandte Linguistik 19]. Frankfurt
a.M: Lang, 85-116.

Göpferich, Susanne. 1995. Textsorten in Naturwissenschaften und Technik. Pragmatische Typologie

- Kontrastierung -Translation. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.

Horn-Helf, Brigitte. 1999. Technisches Übersetzen in Theorie und Praxis. Tübingen, Basel:
Francke.

Huckin, Thomas. 1997. ‘‘Cultural aspects of genre knowledge’’. AILA Review 12/6, Applied
linguistics across disciplines, 68-78.

Hutz, Matthias. 1997. Kontrastive Fachtextlinguistik für den fachbezogenen Fremdsprachenunterricht.

Fachzeitschriftenartikel der Psychologie im interlingualen Vergleich. Trier: WVT.

Jenkins, S., M. K. Jordan & P.O. Weiland. 1993. ‘‘The role of writing in graduate engineering
education: A survey of faculty beliefs and practices’’. ESP Journal 12/1, 51-68.

Jordan, Robert R. 1997. English for Academic Purposes. A Guide and Resource Book for Teachers.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kaplan, Robert B. 1966. ‘‘Cultural thought patterns in intercultural education’’. Language

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Swales, John M. 1990. Genre analysis. English in academic and research settings. Cambridge:
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Ventola, Eija & Anna Mauranen. 1991. ‘‘Non-native writing and native revising of scientific

ABSTRACTS
Writing processes and written genres have been the subject of applied linguistic research for
quite some time. However, there is still controversy of opinions regarding the factors
dominating the writing process of non-native speakers and their products. This paper
focuses on whether L2- writing is predominantly determined by the language skills
(both in L1 and L2), the (inter)cultural experience of the writer, or whether it is rather a
matter of communicative genre awareness. The results of the study of a small corpus in only
three domains show that there are common problems that relate to the inadequate
language proficiency of the writers and to a fairly unconscious transfer of linguistic
elements of the mother tongue into the foreign language. Obviously there are similarities
between the texts with respect to the kind of mistakes and the writing styles. On the other
hand, the texts seem to be fairly determined by the subject and genre constraints. Further
research is required to provide evidence for these preliminary assumptions.

Les processus d’écriture et les genres rédactionnels ont intéressé la recherche en

linguistique appliquée depuis longtemps. Cependant, il y a toujours débat quant aux facteurs
qui régissent les processus d’écriture des utilisateurs non-natifs et leurs productions. La
présente étude essaie de déterminer si la rédaction en L2 est prioritairement déterminée par
les compétences de langue (à la fois en L1 et en L2), l’expérience (inter)culturelle de
l’auteur, ou si elle dépend plutôt d’une conscience de ce qu’est un genre

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 Technical vs. academic writing in English – Any difference for non-native wri... 11

et dans trois domaines seulement, démontrent l’existence de problèmes communs liés à une
compétence linguistique inadéquate des auteurs et à un transfert inconscient des éléments
linguistiques de la langue maternelle vers la langue étrangère. Il existe évidemment
des ressemblances entre les textes en ce qui concerne le type d’erreurs et les styles
rédactionnels. D’autre part, les textes semblent être nettement déterminés par des
contraintes tenant au genre et au sujet. Une recherche plus approfondie s’impose pour
renforcer ces observations préliminaires.

INDEX
Keywords: academic text, genre, intercultural experience, L2-writing, native English
speaker, non-native English speaker, technical text
Mots-clés: expérience interculturelle, genre, rédaction en L2, texte technique, texte
universitaire, utilisateur natif, utilisateur non natif

AUTHOR
INES A. BUSCH-LAUER

ASp, 37-38 | 2002