A structural comparison of American English and Farsi expository writing∗
Johanna E. Katchen · Paper in Linguistics · 1982
Structural characteristics of American English and Farsi expository writing were compared and two major differences were found. American essays contained clear introductory and concluding material; in the Farsi essays, introductions and conclusions were frequently not explicitly stated. American paragraphs contained topic sentences, mostly in initial position, and supporting evidence for the topic sentences was used in paragraph development. Farsi paragraphs typically lacked topic sentences, and the method of development differed somewhat from the American pattern; for example, some paragraphs contained pairs of general statements followed by more specific examples.