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I am a Japanese graduate student, working on the Technical Communication Program
at U of Minnesota. Until I came to Minnesota last September, I had worked as a
technical translator in Osaka, Japan, for 10 years or so.
Last week, two professors showed us the TECHWR discussions over the topic
"English for Asian readers." But most of the arguments seemed to focus on the
Japanese audience: they do not like "white space" or they preser dense text
because of inductive reasoning or little paper resource (??); they prefer small
books; and so on. The topic interested me a lot, although I could not agree to
some of the arguments. But I am not ready to get into that kind of discussions
yet.
Accordingly, for my term paper, I would like to research Japan and US
differences in document design or text preferences about print media/online
media (multimedia). I cannot narrow my focus yet. If any of you knows good
research sources, would you please tell me how and where I can find them. Thank
you in advance.
