1

Metacognitive Reflection

Translating from language to language is a much more direct exchange than translating

from genre to genre. There are conventions embedded in every genre--academic or

non-academic--that a writer has to justify whether or not they should include or omit in the

translation. I translated Lucas Reijnders and Sam Soret’s environmental science journal

“Quantification of the Environmental Impact of Different Dietary Protein Choices” into a

magazine article, specifically from a women’s health magazine. I was able to accomplish this

translation by deriving some of the significant facts from the scientific journal and retelling it

with the mindset that I am writing for a magazine audience interested in reading recreative,

enjoyable articles about diet and health. I focused on incorporating common genre conventions

of magazine writing--composing visually pleasing text and images that appeal as a common

lifestyle magazine as well as using casual and current jargon that is understood primarily by a

generation of millennial women who would read health magazines. The effectiveness of my

translation relied on creating informative text that still maintained an approachable and

entertaining tone that would be digestible to a broader non-academic audience.

My primary text was written in contribution to the ongoing discussion of the

environmental impact on the advancing technological innovations in agriculture, thus expecting

their audience to be able to apply the quantified content in the journal to this existing study. The

authors assume the audience is knowledgeable enough about the field to be able to process the

scientific data present in their journal. While the data tables assist readers in visually

understanding the numbers produced by their experiments, many of the units of measurement, as

well as the symbols accompanying the numbers, would be difficult to interpret by someone
 2

unfamiliar with environmental science data such as “0.02 ha 100 kg​–1​y​–1​” and “ecopoints/kg.”​1

Therefore, the discourse community appears to be those within the environmental or nutrition

studies based on the scientific jargon and data tables used in the journal. The footnote at the

bottom of the text also states that the findings of the journal were presented at the Fourth

International Congress on Vegetarian Nutrition. Writing conventions of scientific journals often

include data tables or graphs, headings, and subheadings, which is apparent in this environmental

science journal with their three data tables and headings: introduction, life cycle impact

assessment techniques, comparisons, and discussion.​2​ These serve as helpful visual cues for a

slightly broader audience than its discourse community, as well as follow a common scientific

format as a scholarly journal.

Noticeable conventions of lifestyle and entertainment magazine writing include

colloquial, conversational writing, and catchy headings within the article. Three magazine

articles that I used to help translate my scholarly journal all follow these themes in their writing.

A Women’s Health magazine article exemplifies the chatty, informal writing style when

throwing light on how practicing a vegan diet, “seems like a great idea in theory (nutrients!

lower cholesterol! helping the environment!). But when it comes down to putting the pieces

together...umm, it's not exactly easy.”​3​ The writing in this magazine article comes off in a way

that almost feels as if you were reading a text message or conversing with a friend. The

approachability that comes with this style of writing functions in fulfilling the entertaining

motive of magazines and produce a leisurely read. The recurring convention of conversational

tone appears in a VegNews article, “you might need some help when making the transition,

1. Lucas Reijnders and Sam Soret, "Quantification of the Environmental Impact of Different Dietary Protein
Choices," ​American Journal of Clinical Nutrition ​78, no. 3S (2003): 664S-68S.
2. Reijnders and Soret, “Quantification of the Environmental Impact,” 664S-68S.
3. Marissa Miller and Nikhita Mahtani “You Might Not Want To Switch To A Vegan Diet Overnight,” ​Women's
Health​, May 6, 2020, https://www.womenshealthmag.com/food/a28251626/how-to-go-vegan/.
 3

which is why we’re providing six tips that’ll have you saying “please pass the kale” in no time,”​4

and with VegetarianTimes who chats with the reader, “Worried that you—or someone you

love—won’t get enough protein without meat? Relax!”​5​ Rather than an objective tone that many

informative articles tend to take on, magazine articles often aim for this friendly approach to

their audience--fashioning their magazine into an inviting source of information.

Often times headings appear in magazine articles, commonly representing steps the

author is advising the reader to take. We see these steps written as a numbered list in the

Women’s Health article, “1. Don’t quit meat cold turkey,”​6 ​and with a similar structure of writing

seen in a VegNews magazine article, “1. Be ready… 2. Think of it as an evolution… 3. Find a

partner… 4. Tap into the wealth of vegan resources.”​7​ This “agenda” set by these magazine

writers help in creating a more exciting read that strays away from the standard essay format,

while also providing advice in a way your own friend would help give you tips. The steps are

commonly straightforward and guiding towards the reader. The editors of Vegetarian Times

include a list of their advised protein choices for vegans in a similar heading format as the other

articles, “1. Tofu… 2. Beans… 3. Greek Yogurt… 4. Eggs… 5. Lentils… 6. Nuts and Nut

Butters… 7. Tempeh… 8. Protein Powder.”​8​ These conventions allow magazine articles to

maintains an alike structure of writing while also providing a sense of comfort and entertainment

to the audience. This structural convention in particular makes for the reader to visually find

information with much ease and avoid the commitment of an immersive read as some academic

genres may require.

4. Mahtani and Miller, “Switch To A Vegan Diet,” 1.

5. Vegetarian Times Editors, “8 Top Protein Sources for Vegetarians” ​Vegetarian Times​, February 3, 2020,
https://www.vegetariantimes.com/health-and-nutrition/8-top-protein-sources-for- vegetarians.
6. Mahtani and Miller, “Switch To A Vegan Diet,” 1.
7. Guy Vaknin, “6 Helpful Tips for Going Vegan,” ​VegNews,​ May 13, 2020,
https://vegnews.com/2019/1/6-helpful-tips-for-going-vegan.
8. Editors of Vegetarian Times, “8 Top Protein Sources,” 1.
 4

To accomplish a successful translation, I incorporated the conventions of magazine

articles mentioned above while still providing key findings from the scientific journal. Unlike the

common convention of data tables and quantified data in scientific journals, I chose to only

include writing and images in the translated magazine article. I felt that despite the flexible style

that most magazine articles possess, it was important not to alter the casual conventions of

magazine writing--at risk that the reading loses the enjoyable nature of entertainment writing. I

found that including a couple of facts from the scientific journal and following it with a playful,

conversational sentence helped balance between the entertainment and information factor. For

instance, I extracted quantified data from the scientific journal about the comparison of

environmental burden in ecopoints/kg between lupine-based cheese and traditional cheese into

more approachable information, “the environmental burden caused by cow milk cheese is

drastically greater than substitutes such as lupine-based cheese (a plant of the pea family) … you

can make your diet much more exciting while also doing our planet a favor. Move over dairy,

hello peas!” By swapping the data tables for visuals and images about the article’s content, it

helped to produce the look of a traditional magazine article, where almost every page is colorful

and pleasing to the eyes. Controlling the degree to which I wanted to include conventions of the

scientific journal enabled me to establish a balance in which I included significant findings of the

journal while maintaining the general aesthetic and tone of a magazine article.

A concern that I had to keep in mind for the translation consisted of deviating from the

entertainment motive of the article when translating content that was derived from a much more

dense scientific journal. In order to successfully translate such contrastive genres, I was aware

that I had to evaluate the differences I would need to account for in the translation. As Sandra L.
 5

Giles states in “Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking?,”

composition scholars advise the helpful practice of “reflective and self-assessing activities

[which] help writers set goals for their writing.”​8​ By reflecting on my own writing and

determining the areas of concern I would most likely encounter, I was equipped in better

preparing my writing plan as well as working around those obstacles of the translation. I was

able to focus on specific areas that I determined to be of most importance such as visuals and

tone in the translation with much better preparation and prior planning. I also utilized tips from

Janet Boyd’s “Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking),” following the procedure of isolating the facts I

obtained from the scientific journal in a similar “who, what, where, when, how” format.​9​ I then

had to decide which aspects of the information fit the conventions of a magazine article the most

and focused on including the necessary information with a new tone, additional details, and a

different order of information to make it appear as close to the conventions I observed in

magazine writing. This is seen in my inclusion of the “who” and “what” aspects of the journal

into my magazine article, mentioning that scientists were the ones who discovered the

environmental burden of meat products. I strayed from adding “where,” “when,” and “how,” into

the translation as I felt that that would unnecessarily linger on the denser portion of the text,

which could have jeopardized the objective of magazine reading as a light, leisurely reading. By

doing so, I was able to capture the science journal’s quantified data about vegetarian substitutes

and its environmental impact and revamp it into appealing lifestyle advice.

9. Janet Boyd, “Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking),” ​Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume ​2 | Writing
Spaces, https://writingspaces.org/volume2.
10. Sandra L Giles, “Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking?” ​Writing Spaces,​
http://writingspaces.org/essays/reflective-writing-and-the-revision.
 6

Bibliography

Boyd, Janet. “Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking).” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume

2 | Writing Spaces. Accessed May 13, 2020. https://writingspaces.org/volume2.

Editors, Vegetarian Times. “8 Top Protein Sources for Vegetarians.” Vegetarian Times,

February

3, 2020. https://www.vegetariantimes.com/health-and-nutrition/8-top-protein-sources-for-

vegetarians.

Giles, Sandra L. “Writing Spaces.” Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were

You

Thinking? | Writing Spaces. Accessed May 13, 2020.

http://writingspaces.org/essays/reflective-writing-and-the-revision.

Mahtani, Nikhita, and Miller, Marissa. “You Might Not Want To

Switch To A Vegan Diet Overnight.” Women's Health, May 6, 2020.

https://www.womenshealthmag.com/food/a28251626/how-to-go-vegan/​.

Reijnders, Lucas, and Soret, Sam. "Quantification of the Environmental Impact of Different

Dietary Protein Choices." American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 78, no. 3S (2003):

664S-68S.

Vaknin, Guy. “6 Helpful Tips for Going Vegan.” VegNews.com. Accessed May 13, 2020.

https://vegnews.com/2019/1/6-helpful-tips-for-going-vegan.