How do I use the Japanese writing paper? (Genkouyoushi)

3 comments

1. Top to bottom. Right to left. But check the internet for guides. Because there’s other rules like 。goes in the top right corner of the square (from memory could be wrong). There’s a bunch of little interesting rules like that I think.

   http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/~tyabe/jpn03/items/genkouyoushi.pdf

   Edit:corrected, I really don’t understand your explanation of direction.

2. That’s great that your school is offering Japanese classes.
   There are two different types of genkoyoshi which are typically used, one for writing vertically 縦書き (it has a dividing section in the middle) and one for writing horizontally 横書き (no section in the middle. Example images of them can both be seen here https://bizroute.net/wpaper.html (if you scroll down, the first two images are the vertical style with the divide in the middle, the second two are of the horizontal style).
   Since you’re outside of Japan and if your teacher has not explained how to use the genkoyoshi beforehand, I would guess that they will not be strict when marking the paper, but if possible you should probably ask them to confirm.
   Usually the vertical style is used for writing essay style while horizontal is used for answering short questions.
   It seems like you might have the vertical type so I would recommend writing it vertically, starting from the top right hand side of the page (the opposite from writing in English).
   For some more tips on how to write vertically you can check this link out here, even if the text is a bit hard to go through the pictures are very self explanatory https://service.zkai.co.jp/el/course/sakubun_club/sakubun-kakikata/genkouyoushi.html
   I’ll summarise here:
   1. Leave two or three squares blank before writing the title / Leave one or two squares blank under writing your name, with one space between your forename and surname [note here that the title starts from the top vertically, but your name should take a new line and should end near the bottom of the page]
   2. For the start of each new paragraph, leave a single square empty.
   3. Punctuation marks such as 、。should take up a single square, and be placed in the top right part of that square. However, they should not start a new line; instead they should be written under the last character of the line.
   4. Small characters such as っゃゅょ should be written to the right of the square (not the middle)
   5. For speech, instead of quotation marks (“”) brackets should be used (「」) and they should be shifted by 90°. / The full stop 。for ending speech should be written in the same square as the closing bracket 」/ If quoted speech takes up more than one line, you can either leave one square open at the start of the new line (as shown in their example) or not / A new line should be taken when a new line of speech begins / If the line following speech is not a new paragraph, an initial square doesn’t need to be left open.
   6. 「」(brackets) and 『』(double brackets) are to use used for different situations:
   Brackets are used for quoting words or conversation, or for giving emphasis to a word.
   Double brackets are used when already within brackets 「」and wanting to use brackets for the above reasons, or for mentioning the title of a book etc.

   For writing in horizontal style the rules are pretty much the same, expect that you start from the top left and write horizontally from top to bottom.
   Hope this helps & good luck!

3. You’ve left it a bit late?! The exam is on the 28th.

   Leaving Cert, that brings back memories. Japanese wasn’t an option in my day.

   Have you been looking at past marking schemes by any chance? “Good use of genkouyoushi”

   It looks like you write in the exam booklet and it has horizontal style (similar to English) genkouyoushi. I wouldn’t rotate the exam booklet to write the essay style answers. I think the important points would be 1 box per character, the character nicely and neatly in the box. Punctuation and small kana in bottom left of their own box. Consistent size of characters.
   7paulmca7 has been very comprehensive in his answer.

   Are you allowed use pencil? I can’t see anything on the booklet either way. But shudder at the thought of white-out tape and biro. I’m guessing you can also use scrap paper, and presumably this also has to be submitted. If I thought I had sufficient time I would write it roughly first then carefully transcribe it to the booklet. But that takes time you might not have. I’m guessing if you run out of space in the booklet you are using too many characters and your answer is too long. Would they give extra paper?

   Check with your teacher if you have one. They should have the best info

   Good luck. がんばれ〜 go n-éirí leat!

   Hope you do well and get a place on whatever you want to do next.

   ​

   for anyone curious about this exam you can access past papers and marking schemes here:

   https://www.examinations.ie/exammaterialarchive/