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Andrew Kim

6/3/15
Zack De Piero
Writing 2
Genre Transformers
Genre is an important tool and concept in writing. Genre is the categorization of a
specific piece-ranging from something as miniscule as a Tweet to as large as a doctorate paperthat evaluates and states the characteristics of that piece. Understanding genre allows writers to
mend their ideas and analysis to appropriate situations. For a horror novel, writers will include
certain themes that are associated with that specific genre. Typically the novel will have a
murderer or monster that wreaks havoc on society. Writers will also include multiple characters
who will be killed and typically have one or two survivors. All these themes mentioned are
conventions. Conventions are the characteristics or the parts of a genre. As a result when one
changes genre, one must take into considerations of the conventions the new genre has and adapt
the old piece into something familiar yet different at the same time. Losh and Alexander explain
in their piece, Writing Identities, that writing means always changing----Changing to meet the
needs of different audiences (Losh/Alexander 114)! In order to transform an academic piece
into a comic book and side-effect label, one must take into consideration of the audience and
from that commit the omission and editing of content and word choice
Violent Video Gaming and Moral Reasoning in Adolescents: Is There an Association?
is an article about the correlation between teen violence/behavior and video games. The author,
Mirjana Bajovic, argues that there is a correlation between the two and that those who play video
games are, more likely to exhibit aggressive behavior and may experience violent tendencies in

their attitudes and values in real life. In this text, the author is writing a scholarly research paper
and as a result followed certain conventions synonymous with a respected academic piece.
Bajovic utilizes the research of multiple surveys that exemplify her belief. She includes surveys
and studies done by multiple experts and cites them. She has to cite her paper and uses these
sources to make her paper more credible and less refutable. By having other experts and studies
that prove a trend, Bajovics claims and analysis seem logical and sound. Bajovic also uses a
more appropriate word choice and jargon. Instead of using kids, Bajovic uses terms like
children and adolescents as well as use sociological terms like sociomoral reflection.
Transforming this academic piece into a comic book involved the omission and addition
of words and content as well as framing the individual slide. Typically, a comic books audience
is a youthful generation, usually young boys, that enjoys action. For the comic book, the steps
involved in creating the text were numerous. One thing, compared to the academic text, the
comic book has less space for information. McCloud in his comic, Writing with Pictures,
states that choice of frame is choosing the right distance and angle to view those moment
(McCloud 10). As a result, I had to omit a lot of content from the article to fit the comic. And to
add suspense and emotion, I zoomed into the picture to show significant or key information.
Also because a comic book has a story behind it with characters and plot to intrigue the younger
audience, I had to add information not originally given in the text. I included characters such as
Harry, the main protagonist and antagonist of my story, as well as others. I also included a plot
that followed a certain trend of hero faces problem. Hero initially struggles with said problem,
but eventually overcomes it. In my comic, the hero, Harry, struggles with the evil Harry, who
was born from continued playing of violent video game, and must defeat his inner self to find
peace. This template of evil vs. good and a successful ending are all trademarks or conventions

of a children comic book. In my transformation, I was trying to create an interesting and


entertaining story where the readers will enjoy the plot, yet at the same time learn a valuable
message.
In creating the medicine label for the older generation, I had to mostly omit content and
keep the information to its bare minimum. The purpose of the medicine label was to inform the
older generation, typically the elderly, of the ill effects of playing video games in a medical
sense. Usually it is the elderly who take the time in reading the labels and all the side effects and
results of the medicine. On the label, I included the side effects, which were: increased anger,
increased aggression, sociomoral change, etc. I also kept the structure and form similar to an
actual label because the structure is just as an important move in creating a proper genre. Also to
make my medicine label accurate in a genre sense, I included recommended prescription for
certain age groups and told the intended effects of video games. However, I omitted a lot of
information that would make the academic paper lose all credence. I removed all the surveys,
data, and experiments that made the argument credible and convincing in the scholarly paper. I
removed all this information because it did not fit the genre of a medicine label, it did not fit in
the limited space, and it was not necessary. Losh and Alexander explain in their comic that one
always need to think about the audience [one is] trying to reach in my rhetorical situation
(Losh/Alexander 129). And so I kept my mind on the audience and kept the information succinct
and expected. The only information I put on the label was the prescription, effects, and side
effects.
In order to keep the comic appropriate to its genre, I used simplistic language that kids
would understand. For the scholarly article, Bajovic picked words that were more suited for an
academic piece. She included words like, sociomoral maturity and bivariate. Bajovic

included words that scholars of her respective field would understand because that is her
audience. However for my comic, the audience does not have the same level of education and
knowledge. Thus I have to use specific words that the readers would understand. I included
words like noob and made the language fairly simplistic so that my readers can understand the
story.
Compared to the academic paper, I used appropriate jargon for the medicine label that
one would find in most medicine. Like the younger audience for the comic book, the older
audience, typically the elderly, do not have the extensive knowledge that Bajovic expects from
her readers. So in my medicine label, I did not use language or words that most people would not
know. However, I did include specific jargon that a medicine label would have like anesthesia,
which is the medical term for reducing consciousness and pain.
In the end, the ultimate goal of my paper was to express the overall idea and message that
video games have an adverse effect on the mental psyche and moral. Through the comic, Harry,
a video game addict, becomes a monster due to his obsession to video games and must overcome
his addiction to free himself. Through the medicine label, I included all the negative side effects
that typically follow from the abuse of video games. This allows the older generation to
understand how video games affect the body significantly.

Bibliography
Bajovic, Mirjana. "Violent Video Gaming and Moral ReasoningIn Adolescents: Is There an
Association." EBSCO Host. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 May 2015.
<http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=55a615ac-b206-4440-
9c8e-6e0ca988eb85%40sessionmgr112&vid=1&hid=128>.

Losh, Elizabeth, and Jonathan Alexander. "Writing Identities." N.p.: n.p., n.d. 114+. Print.

McCloud, Scott. "Writing With Pictures." N.p.: n.p., n.d. 10. Print.
1.

Writing 2 WP3 Feedback

Writer: Andy Kim


Did Not
Meet
Expectatio
ns

Met Expectations

Exceeded Expect

Translated
/Transfor
med
Genres
(Overall)
Younger
Genres
Convention
s and
Rhetorical
Factors
Older
Genres
Convention
s and
Rhetorical
Factors
Considerati
on of Big
Ideas in
the
Scholarly
Article
Perceived
Effort

X+

SelfAnalysis
Reflection
(Overall)

Description
of Moves
Attention
to
Genre/Con
ventions
and
Rhetorical

X
X

Factors
Use of
Translated
Genres as
Evidence of
Moves
Use of
Course
Readings
(McCloud,
Losh/Alexa
nder, Etc.)
Sentencelevel
Clarity,
Mechanics,
Flow

X-

Andrew,
I really, really liked your idea for a comic book and I think its a cool way of capturing the moral within the research piece.
However, it wasnt the simplistic visuals which I didnt totally loveit was the narration and the dialogue. I thought you could
have expanded this a bit more and made it more substantial I do realize that lots of comics have 1-word or a few word captions,
but they also tend to intersperse longer ones into them. Maybe you could find a way to integrate some of the scientific
(ie, the surveys, possibly?) data from the research piece too.
Your prescription label was fantastic. Hot head and a need to be destructive made me laughway to be spot-on with the conventions.
I also liked your self-analysis too. It was clear and it led me through your thought process, which is what I hoped for. If you decide to work
on this for the portfolio, I think you should also spend more time focusing on what, exactly, the big ideas are in the original piece.
All told, though, solid work here, Andrew. J

Z
8.5/10

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