A novel multidimensional analysis of writing styles of editorials from China Daily and The New York Times

A bespoke multidimensional (MD) analysis was performed to compare the writing styles of editorials in China Daily (CD) and The New York Times (NYT) and a formula was proposed to compute a total score for each corpus. Five dimensions were extracted and labeled as: Involved vs. Informational Production, Narrative vs. Non-Narrative Concerns, Expression of Institutional Stance, Overt Expression of Argumentation and Abstract Style. The results showed that the CD editorials appeared more informational, impersonal and showed more institutional voice than the NYT editorials, whereas the NYT editorials were more involved, narrative, overtly argumentative and displayed more personal stance than the CD editorials. All the dimensions taken together, the CD editorials appeared more formal and less readable than the NYT ones. The disparity between both corpora of editorials was discussed in terms of cross-cultural differences. This study provides novel insights into peculiar and unique writing styles in both American and Chinese English persuasive writing.