All along, I have never enjoyed analysing texts. When i realised that the topic for this week was written discourse, I was like "uh-oh". Luckily class was quite interesting, with all the activities and the discussions. It was also interesting to know that people actually analyse texts and classify them through the different styles, especially the English and Oriental styles which I could much more easily identify with. Having said that, I still don't like analysing texts.
Writing Chinese Essays in English Style
Anyway, having learnt about the Chinese and English ways of writing, it does bring to my mind about writing English and Chinese essays during my primary school, secondary school and junior college days. I have always struggled with writing Chinese essays, and my grades were always borderline passes. When I went to my teachers and asked them why I fared so badly, all they could tell me was that besides my limited Chinese vocabulary, my style of writing was just so English, and it felt like a direct translation from English. And that was it. I asked which aspect of it was so "English", and none of them could give me a satisfactory answer. The typical answer was, "Just read your friends' essays and more Chinese story books." And that obviously didn't help me much, because I still couldn't see the difference. Maybe I should write to the Ministry of Education (MOE) to request them to send all their teachers to attend GEK1036.
Patient Information Leaflets - Are They Written in the English or Oriental Style?
With regards to pharmaceuticals, it also came to my mind the way that patient information leaflets (found inside medication boxes) are phrased actually follows the "English" style of writing. It is more direct, with a main topic before elaboration or supporting points. And to me, that's really important. If it followed the "Chinese" style of writing with all the "peripheral" information before coming to the main point, I wonder how many patients will actually bother to read till the end.
Let's take for example a paragraph I extracted from the package insert of a paracetamol suppository box. Just to provide some simple background information, paracetamol is the active ingredient in the painkiller Panadol, and the dosage form that we are most familiar with is the tablet form. However, there are many other dosage forms of paracetamol, including syrups, suspensions, pessaries, injections, and suppositories. Suppositories are little bullet shaped dosage forms containing the active ingredient and it is inserted into the rectum (or anus). It has a much quicker onset of action than the regular tablet form, and that means it works faster.
This is what it looks like in the information leaflet:
FOR RECTAL USE ONLY
This medication is for rectal use only. Do not consume orally or mix with other solvents. If you are unsure on how to use this medication, please consult your healthcare professional for further advice.
It goes straight to the point, telling patients that it is not to be consumed orally, before elaborating with more information. This is extremely important, because for a patient who just purchased such a product, he might assume that it is to be consumed orally. Especially for a person who's having a splitting headache, all he wants is to take something to quickly relieve his discomfort. I don't think a "Chinese" style of patient information would suit him. Imagine if it were like this (and yes it follows Text B of Activity 2) :
"Of all the ways that paracetamol can be administered in the world, some are more popular than others. Sean Ang likes the tablet form, and Fabius Chen prefers the sweet and tasty syrup form. Ever since paracetamol came to the market, people all over the world favour the tablet form. This box however, favours the suppository form because it works much faster and is just as potent as the tablet form. It is cone shaped, yellow, and wrapped in foil. The longer it stays refrigerated, the longer it lasts. Every suppository stands upright and firm. It is best to insert it into your rectum, but not eat it."
OH MY GOODNESS. If I were the patient who was suffering and I had no idea what a suppository was, I would stop reading after the first 2 lines and just consume the suppository orally and treat it as a larger sized pill. (and yes, it has happened many times before all over the world)
Having said that, perhaps if I was educated in the Chinese form of writing, I would learn to interpret all that at a glance. Then again, when it comes to medication, I'm not so sure that I would want my patient to interpret on his own what the information on the leaflet was trying to say. For me, it has to be writer responsible. It would be disaster to have a reader-responsible patient information leaflet.
As such, it is my guess that patient information leaflets that have "Chinese" as the main language actually follow an "English" style of written discourse. This is mainly functional, with patient safety of utmost importance, rather than sticking to the traditional style of writing.
That's all for this week, happy mid sem break!
3 comments:
Your prediction of the oriental way of instruction is so hilarious! Anyway, i guess medication is an exception for the oriental written discourse. This is observable in Traditional chinese medicine (TCM). Usually the pharmacist/sinseh would explain to the patient directly. Otherwise, the label would state explicitly whether its to be taken orally or applied externally, together with the list of the ailments it is effective against. As for suppository use, i'm curious how it would be written in chinese. 插入肛门？Very straight to the point. lol..
Your analysis of the instructions written for pharmaceutical medicine is really amusing! I believe the style of writing was affected by the specific domain, and not really language in this case. In scientific or medical discourse today, I suppose organization and clarity are valued. Hence, the choice of a so-called 'English' style of linearity for the writing of the medicine-taking instructions.
That's funny. But I suppose essays are different genres from information leaflet, as they serve different purposes. So necessarily they should be written in different ways.
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