Learning Japanese rhetoric and composition


One aspect of studying Japanese that has greatly frustrated me is my
university's lack of writing classes. Learning kanji, vocab, grammar and an
academic or other style is important, but Japanese rhetoric at its core is
also structured differently than that of English.

For example, I remember learning how to write an essay in English for the
first time. The teacher showed us that formula everyone knows: introductory
paragraph with a thesis, supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion that restates
the thesis.

Formulaic writing like this gets old, of course, but the basic idea is adhered
to pretty well in English writing. State your thesis and support it. The first
time I read an essay in Japanese, it was from some 社会学 study thing from a 東大
professor. It was designed to help Japanese students pass entrance exams. It
was useful in some ways, but it was also very frustrating. I was frustrated
because the author would say things like "I hope you found the thesis. It was
right there, in that third paragraph. There's something wrong if you couldn't
find it." I'd reread the passage over and over again but it was always
difficult for me to understand the structure of the writing. "Of course I
couldn't find it. Why is it in the third paragraph?!"

A Japanese person told me once that they structure their rhetoric opposite
ours, saying that we put the thesis first and they put the thesis last. I
think that is probably an oversimplification. My wife has been doing some
interesting cultural studies and has led me to field of contrastive rhetoric;
[this article](http://www2.aasa.ac.jp/~dcdycus/LAC97/rhetoric.htm) for example
looks like a promising help to understanding. All three of the listed Japanese
rhetorical structures would be very difficult for an English reader to
understand.

I want to know some good resources to polish my writing skills in Japanese. It
would be nice if there were something in English, similar to [this Korean
textbook](http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0824824776), simply because
it would be able to highlight the contrastive structure between
English/Japanese writing styles. But something in Japanese is great, too (I
remember seeing writing books at The Daiso, but something else would be nice).
Perhaps there is a popular kokugo textbook for college/high school students?




If you are looking for a structured approach to become familiar with different
writing styles, common ways of constructing/planning essays, technical
writing, newspapers, novels etc then I would suggest working your way through
some 読解 text books for the JLPT. The written section which makes up 1/3 of
marks but takes up 1/2 the time is a series of comprehension questions similar
to those you probably took in your English language classes at school. Doing
the questions will force you to take an active approach and let you know if
you really understand what you are reading.

There is a plethora of JLPT books but I would suggest starting with the 総まとめ
series and then moving on to 新完全マスター. Both present the styles in a structured
fashion. The former are easier to digest because they are less intense and try
to give materials that are fun/interesting to read. I treated them as a primer
for the latter which are less interesting and more intense but will take to a
higher level. You could practise what you have learned from either series (ie
increase you familiarity with the styles) by doing questions in other
textbooks.

I should not be too proud to start at level N3, even if you think you are a
higher level, you'll just fly through it in a few days! (I passed N1 last July
but need to find a way to improve my skills of composition. I am now getting
tremendous value out of reviewing the fundamentals of grammar with 新完全マスターN3.)

