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Culture And Genre In American And Canadian Direct Marketing Letter

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”Dear Friend” (?): Culture and Genre in American and Canadian Direct Marketing Letter

Md Rishad Zaman
001100341

Professor Neil Stubbs

Introduction to Academic Writing

Section WRIT 1000B

17 July 2013

In “”Dear Friend” (?): Culture and Genre in American and Canadian Direct Marketing Letter”, Roger Graves examines how English speaking Canadian people are different from Americans, and how business communicators need to identify those differences to be successful in both countries. Roger Graves uses warnings written on the cigarette packet to argue that Americans see only the health factors when Canadians consider both health and moral issue.

Another difference Roger Graves states is that …show more content…

He mention that “Canadian seem to prefer more direct approach than Americans.”(244).In his research, American culture with less power distance using a friendly facades. As a result, business letters in America starts with “Dear friend” (244). On the other hand Canadians prefer business letters with a more formal tone which establishes more power distance. A Canadian focus is only on the products and services, anything other than that is insincere.

Business letters in America use economics, nationalistic and patriotic sensibilities to sell their products and services. In contrast, Canadians prefers to have facts, professionalism, and confidential analysis of products and services, enhancing the credibility and trustworthiness of businesses. Canadians view the extrinsic rewards in the products and services with suspicion suggesting that it may not worth purchasing. He also observes that the US market is larger and more complex than the Canadian market. US businesses include a brief explanation of them; whereas, Canadian businesses assume customers to know who they are.

In the U.S. presidential campaign, Bill Clinton put the date and hand written sign to reduce the distance with the general people by making it more personal. They want to believe that politicians are more in touch with the general people by greeting “Dear Friend” in their letter as a polite greeting from an equal. In Canada, “Dear

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