1 Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rationale
Language and culture are interdependent and interactional. Culture affects the way
language is used and language may reflect many factors of culture in turn. In addition,
what is right in one culture may not be accepted in another culture. As people move from
one country to another, cultural differences become apparent to them. For instance,
American society values simple and direct communication. Being open and direct in
expressing desires, preferences, and feelings or in discussing issues is highly appreciated in
the United States. Americans are likely to be, to various degrees, honest in delivering
negative evaluations. However, in Vietnamese culture, where positive face saving is
important, directness may be perceived as being blunt, rude and impolite, especially when
complaining and criticizing someone or something (face-damaging acts). Therefore, most
Vietnamese are at first shocked at the American direct way of communicating in general
and criticizing in particular.
In addition, with the popularity of Internet and online magazines in English language,
people have more chances to interact and know more about other countries. As a reporter
of a Vietnamese e-newspaper, the thesis author would like to find out the differences in
article-writing style among countries and how culture affects it.
For the limitation of time and resources, she only focuses on expressions of criticizing in
American and Vietnamese e-newspapers in the light of Directness/Indirectness to see if
they cause culture shock. Such is her hope that this paper will have some contributions to
the study of cross-cultural communication between America and Vietnam.
1.2 Aims of the study
The aims of this paper are:
+ To study cultural aspects which affect criticism in American and Vietnamese online
newspapers
+ To compare the use of directness and indirectness in criticism between American and
Vietnamese online newspapers
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+ To study ways to express criticism in American and Vietnamese online newspapers
1.3 Scope of the study

hand, be considered as products of action, on the other hand as conditioning elements of
further actions” (1952:181)
Because the thesis focuses on the communication aspect of culture, the definition by
Levine and Adelman (cited in Nguyen Quang, 1998) is believed to be the most relevant:
“Culture is a shared background (for example, national, ethnic, religious) resulting from a
common language and communication style, customs, beliefs, attitudes and values. Culture
refers to the informal and often hidden interactions, expressions and viewpoints that
people in one culture share. The hidden nature of culture has been compared to an
iceberg, most of which is hidden under water. Like the iceberg, much of the influence of
culture on an individual cannot be seen. The part of culture that is exposed is not always
that which creates cross-cultural difficulties: the hidden aspects of culture have significant
effects on behaviors and on interactions with other.”
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2.1.2 Culture shock
Culture shock can be described as the physical and emotional discomfort one suffers when
coming to another country or a place different from the place of origin. Often, the way that
one lived before is not accepted or considered as normal in the new place. Everything is
different, for example, not speaking the language, not knowing how to use some
mechanical systems and so forth.
The symptoms of culture shock can appear at different times. Although one can experience
real pain from culture shock, it is also an opportunity for redefining one’s life objectives. It
is a great opportunity for learning to acquire new perspectives.
In these days, due to the development of technology, people can update information
through media system such as television, newspapers, internet, etc. Another expression of
culture shock occurs when one cannot explain what he/she is viewing. In this case, “culture
shock” may be equivalent to the term “confusion”. For instance, when a foreigner reads
this sentence in a Vietnamese newspaper:
He is considered a Chi in the Vietnamese Literature.
(Ông được coi là anh Chí của nền văn học Việt Nam)
The foreigner is sure to be confused if he does not know Chi and his personality.

serious examination and judgment of something.
Criticism helps to clarify and define the theoretical basis of public address. It also
contributes to setting up a standard of society. In particular, criticism interprets the
function of communication and indicates the limits of present knowledge in society.
2.2.2 Types of criticism
2.2.2.1 Practice of analyzing and evaluating literary or other artistic works
This type of criticism is based on the rules and principles that regulate the practice of the
critic, the art of judging with knowledge and propriety of the beauties and faults of a
literature performance, or of a production in the fine art.
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As Brande & C. (1913) says the elements of criticism depend on the two principles of
Beauty and Truth, one of which is the final end or object of study it pursuits: Beauty - in
letters and the arts; Truth – in history and sciences.
2.2.2.2 Unfavorable judgment of other social aspects
Unfavorable judgment is called fault - finding or disposal expressed by pointing out faults
or shortcomings. Anyone who does not follow the standard way of doing will be criticized.
This type of criticism covers all aspects of life ranging from politics, economy to social
behaviors.
E.g. The senator received severe criticism from his opponent.
Most people attach a negative connotation to the word criticism because it brings to mind
of something uncomfortable. However, criticism comes into two flavors: constructive and
destructive. Destructive criticism aims to hurt an individual’s self-esteem by causing
psychological damage. In contrast, constructive one is handled with positive attitude that
will receive improved results and give feeling of satisfaction.
Literature criticism requires a certain ability of evaluating literary or artistic works. Also, it
has limited and selected number of readers. Hence, literature criticism is not popular
among people. In contrast, the second type of criticism reflects all the aspects of life and
has direct impact on readers. Thus, the second is the type of criticism the author will focus
on in the next parts.
2.3 Directness vs. Indirectness

“Thank you for the report. I can see you put a lot of effort into it. However, I was hoping
you could touch it up a little by summarizing it more carefully and adding some graphs.
This content is solid, but if you could make those small changes, I would really appreciate
it.”
The Vietnamese often use hedges before informing bad news or criticizing. Giving some
compliments before showing weak points of others is preferable among them.
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2.4 Newspapers
2.4.1 Definition of newspapers
According to Oxford English Dictionary (1990):
A newspaper is a sheet of paper printed and distributed, at stated intervals for conveying
intelligence of passing events, advocating opinions, etc.; a public print that circulates
news, advertisements, proceeding of legislative bodies, public announcements, etc.
Another definition that the Levi E. Coe Library presented in their website should be taken
into consideration:
A newspaper is a lightweight and disposable periodical usually printed on low-cost paper
called newsprint containing a journal of current news in a variety of topics. These topics
can include political events, crime, sports, opinion, and weather.
Newspapers are also developed around very narrow topic areas, such as news for
merchants in a specific industry, fans of particular sports, fans of the arts or of specific
artists, and participants in the same sorts of activities or lifestyles.
Most nations have at least one newspaper that circulates throughout the whole country, but
in the United States there are few truly national newspapers, with the exception of USA
Today and The Wall Street Journal; large metropolitan newspapers with expanded
distribution networks such as The New York Times.
Nowadays, newspapers are not only printed on sheets of paper. With the development of
Internet, another kind of newspaper that, in recent years, has been popular to everyone has
appeared: e-newspaper (newspaper in Internet).
2.4.2 E-newspapers
Of all the changes of newspapers, the most significant recent development is obviously the

certain place, relating to certain people. This is the basic persuasion because it helps
readers check the information easily.
2.4.3.3 Publicity
Newspaper is a kind of mass media. Every one, regardless of education level, is objectively
served by newspapers where they can both get the information and express their opinion.
Therefore newspapers should use the general standard language to meet the needs of
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various readers, so that a scientist with wide knowledge does not feel bored, and a child
with low qualification can easily understand.
2.4.3.4 Conciseness
Language in newspapers should be short and brief. Long expression can make the
information dilute, which causes bad effect on the reception of information. Moreover, it
wastes time for both the writers and readers because in this era of information explosion, it
is better to get as much information as possible in the shortest time.
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3 Chapter 3: CRITICISM IN AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE NEWSPAPERS
3.1 Major factors affecting direct/indirect criticism
3.1.1 Communication styles
It has been proved that American society values simple, direct verbal and written
communication while the Vietnamese consider directness as lack of subtlety and
sophistication.
Gary M. Wederspahn, a leader in the field of intercultural relations and communications,
has characterized the American style of communication as strongly oriented towards
content (facts, numbers, dates, and precise, explicit meanings). Their speech reflects the
high value they place on words and the need for clarity. Wederspahn (2000) states:
“Americans focus may be compared to a spotlight intensively illuminating a narrow band
of the communication spectrum. In contrast, the communication style in Asia is more like a
floodlight that takes in the context in which the communications occur.” This means the
situation and the relationship of the people involved plus the time and place all carry a
large part of the meaning in the conversation of the Vietnamese. The actual words tend to

when one starts to use it in order to create a certain experience and feeling. And no one
needs defense against something that is neutral. Additionally, they tend to think of
themselves before taking notice of others’ reactions because of their individualism. For this
reason, the American are not resistant to express their critical opinions.
For the Vietnamese, regardless of how 'true' the criticism is, it seems, for a moment, there
is something wrong with those who are criticized, and seen from the perspective of one’s
personality this is never a pleasant experience. What is not pleasant should be avoided,
diverted, hidden or otherwise be experienced as little as possible. Hence, many of the
activities aim at prevention from being criticized.
3.2 Criticism in American newspapers
As discussed in Chapter 2, the American are generally open and straightforward in
communication. They often speak or write directly about things they dislike. They are not
taught that they should mask their emotional responses. They do not think it improper to
display their feelings.
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Hence, in American media in general and in American e-newspapers in particular, voice of
criticism is usually strong, straight and direct. Some critical articles even sound aggressive,
severe and sharp.
Most articles of criticism in the US e-newspapers have a very clear style. They give the
main points and state the criticism at the top in the headline and the lead paragraph(s). The
body of the articles then adds details, statements, and comments from people involved in
the articles, plus any background the writer feels necessary to support the criticism more
strongly. This means one gets at least three chances to understand the main points of the
article. It is said “at least” because many articles have accompanying picture and captions
(text explaining the pictures) as well which produce much stronger impact on readers.
The content of the next part is collected and classified through an investigation into three
most popular American online newspapers: USA Today (), The
New York Times (), and The Washington Post
().
3.3 Criticism in Vietnamese newspapers

4 Chapter 4: RESEARCH AND DATA ANALYSIS
4.1 Methodology
4.1.1 Research questions
This research aims at answering the following questions:
- What are the ways that American and Vietnamese online newspapers use to express
criticism?
- How different are the degrees of directness and indirectness of criticizing between
American and Vietnamese online newspapers?
4.1.2 Sources of linguistic input
- 3 of most popular American online newspapers: USA Today (),
The New York Times (), and The Washington Post
().
- 3 of most popular Vietnamese online newspapers: VnExpress (),
Vietnamnet (), Dân Trí Online ().
4.1.3 Data collection procedure
- Investigation of “Nation” column in American e-newspapers and “Xã hội” column in
Vietnamese e-newspapers from November 26
th
to December 2
nd
2008 to find out the
number of critical articles and compare the percentages of direct/indirect criticism between
American and Vietnamese online newspapers through the layout and illustrations of
articles as well as the language used.
4.2 Data analysis and findings
4.2.1 Structure of the articles
Each of the three main part of an article (the headline, the lead and the body) has its own
distinctive style and content.
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4.2.1.1 The headline

American online newspapers from November 26
th
to December 2
nd
have no slang with
quotation mark (which is so popular in Vietnamese newspapers), although they are
sometimes troublesome. For example, the writers try to catch the readers’ attention and
some of the methods used like humor, question mark, word plays, or idioms can be
difficult for non-native readers to figure out:
Expert or Shill? (The New York Times)
Black Friday: Is your cashier cranky? (USA Today)
Nevertheless, this way of writing headline is so rare (2 in all 25 headlines in the US e-
newspapers) because Americans prefer direct titles so that they will immediately know
what the article is going to mention to save their time.
4.2.1.2 The lead
The lead refers to the first (and occasionally the second) paragraph of an article. It is
usually one information-packed sentence which expands on the story’s main point as
introduced in the headline. The lead gives enough information to allow readers to make an
important decision whether they want to read the story or to skip it and move on to another
more interesting story:
“We have "only one President at a time," Obama said in his debut press conference as
President-elect. By mid-November, with the financial crisis growing worse by the day, it
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had become obvious that one President was no longer enough (at least not the President
we had)”.
Just reading the lead of the article “Bush's Last Days: The Lamest Duck”, readers can
immediately know that the article is about to look down the role of US President George
Bush in helping America overcome the current economic depression through some strong
words and phrases as “obvious”, “no longer enough”, “not the President we had”. In
addition, the writer hopes the president-elect Obama take action even though he will not

victim lives to tell about what happened. Just another case of someone someplace at the
wrong time. One more sad example of life in a city where the bad are bolder than the good
and the victim is an afterthought. (The Washington Post)
Similarly, indirect writing style is chosen in only 7 leads in Vietnamese e-newspaper. It
seems the writers have made use of all the limited space and number of words in the lead
to draw a whole picture for the readers:
Cho dù giá xăng liên tục giảm trong thời gian gần đây, nhưng những người thường phải di
chuyển bằng xe ôm thì vẫn phải trả mức giá cao ngất ngưởng. (Xăng giảm giá, xe ôm Hà
thành vẫn “chém đẹp” – Vietnamnet)
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(Although gas price is continuously reduced, passengers still have to pay a lot of money
for the hired motorbike’s owner).
4.2.1.3 The body
American journalists are concerned with “the 5Ws and the H” (who did what, when,
where, why, and how). Any good article will provide information to all of these.
Meanwhile, Vietnamese writers do not answer every question if they think it is not
necessary, especially they answer the question ‘who’ in a very indirect way.
“It's 2 a.m. (when) in a jam-packed New York City nightclub (where), and Britney Spears
(who) is giving what may be her wildest, rawest, sweatiest (how) performance (what) yet.
It sure is a far cry from the girl in braids the world first met just years ago. She exactly did
go from good Britney to bad Britney. Probably, she is just a young girl growing up.
However, it is more like a down and dirty marketing master plan (why)”. (The New York
Times)
“Chiều 17/11 vừa qua, tôi có mặt tại một sân chơi ca nhạc và tôi đã phải "hết hồn" khi
các ca sĩ nam xuất hiện. Đầu tiên là ca sĩ B.T, khi B.T xuất hiện thì những tiếng cười cợt
từ dưới sân khấu bắt đầu nổi lên. B.T mặc bộ trang phục màu trắng làm cho khán giả liên
tưởng đến một vị đại hiệp trong phim Hồng Kông. Ca sĩ này hát xong thì nam ca sĩ V.H
bước ra với giọng cười thật ấn tượng, nhưng "ấn tượng" hơn hết là trang phục anh
mặc…”. (Dân Trí Online)
(In the afternoon of November 17, I went to a live show and was amazed when I saw the

projects.
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Figure 3: Comparison of Directness and Indirectness in the Illustrations
In American newspapers, there still exist 4 indirect images while this appears 9 times in
Vietnamese ones, such as blurred pictures or with the caption “Hình ảnh trên chỉ mang
tính minh hoạ” (this photograph above is just for illustration):
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Here is the image of the article 9x, 10x “khoe mình” trên mạng (Teens post nude photos on
blogs) revealing an issue that even 7-9 year old girls show off the body in the Internet, but
their faces have been blurred by the reporter. Whereas, the below does not look like a
critical picture, it seems to be used for decoration only.
The comparison of illustration shows that both feel free and daring to express what they
think but the Vietnamese tend to avoid things which are considered sensitive. Especially,
when mentioning about sex, Vietnamese writers only post the pictures that will not cause
embarrassment or strain for readers. On the contrary, sexual pictures are usual images in
American newspapers.
4.2.3 Six major ways to express indirect criticism
Writers make great effort to find different methods of indirect criticism when expressing
their point of view. This, on one hand, reduces negative reactions; and, on the other hand,
the information becomes more vivid and interesting to readers.
Ways of expressing criticism indirectly in e- newspapers can be: using literature materials,
proverbs and precepts, punctuations, metaphors, abbreviation, and playing on words.
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4.2.3.1 Metaphors
Metaphor is a rhetorical trope or a figure of speech, where a comparison is made between
two seemingly unrelated objects without using “like” or “as”. It is transference on one
object’s characteristics onto another.
Metaphor also appears frequently in American newspapers. They use the phrase “star to
steer by” (The Washington Post) when complaining about a lack of strategic vision from
government; or “full-speed ahead” (USA Today) when 92 local banks committed