This study analyzed writing features conceptually linked to collectivist or individualist orientations among students from Taiwan and the U.S. These features were indirectness, personal disclosure (first person singular pronouns and personal anecdotes), use of proverbs and other canonical expressions, collective self (first personal plural pronouns and statements of humaneness and collective virtues), and assertiveness. Comparisons were made across languages and nationalities (Taiwanese and U.S. students) and also across language alone (Taiwanese writing in Chinese and in English). Associations with each writer's degree of collectivism as a personality trait were also tested. U.S. students writing in English, compared to Taiwanese students writing in Chinese, were found to be more direct and to reveal more personal anecdotes. Taiwanese students, in contrast, tended to use more proverbs and to express humaneness and collective virtues with greater frequency. Taiwanese students' English writing showed influences of their L1 (first language) writing conventions in terms of indirectness, humaneness, collective virtues, and limited use of personal anecdotes. Taiwanese students writing in English, as compared with their L1, were more likely to use first person pronouns, were less likely to use proverbs and were also less assertive. Use of writing features was associated with nationality and language but not with writer's individual levels of collectivism. These associations imply that certain writing features may be more a matter of socialized discourse conventions than directly attributable to differences in collectivist or individualist ideation. Moreover, other findings of variability, especially among Taiwanese writers, belie any simplistic cultural essentialism.
