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Writing project 2: Genre Translation 

Ashley Son 

WRIT 2 

Valentina Fahler 

5/24/20 
 

 
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For my genre translation I decided to use one of the class readings, ““I need you to say 

‘I’”: Why First Person Is Important in College Writing” by Kate McKinney Maddalena I 

translated this piece of writing to a comic strip. For the comic strip I wanted to still incorporate 

the idea of a mocking sense of humor yet still emphasize the idea of the use of personal 

pronouns. Despite many challenges of creating an academic article into a non academic 

translation, I carefully pieced together the comic strip in order to successfully appeal to the 

students and workers in the educational field, while maintaining a comedic effect. 

The original piece of writing, ““I need you to say ‘I’”: Why First Person Is Important in 

College Writing,” was written with the purpose of educating the readers. The piece had an 

intended audience of students in college or anyone with the background of writing within the 

educational field. Maddalena focuses greatly on the idea of how to use these personal pronouns 

properly in one’s essay or report, whether it is to strengthen the concepts within one’s writing or 

simply learning how to incorporate personal pronouns in one’s essays. Within the article, it 

expatiates on points on when it is valid and not valid to use these personal pronouns and if so 

how to utilize these to build and substantiate one’s claim. 

In order to convert this into a genre translation, I found points to emphasize within the 

article that could portray a sense of humor. I decided that the most efficient way to communicate 

this specific genre was through a comic strip, since it can communicate with the audience 

visually.It was effectively communicated with the audience because it leads them to relate to 

their past experiences and can visualize the specific scenario. Additionally, comic strips are 

capable of condensing the non necessary information within the article and emphasizing the 
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ideas where it would accentuate the humor, for example through the comic strips I was able to 

emphasize the comparison of how the use of personal pronouns were taught within high school 

and college rather than the idea of how to use these personal pronouns efficiently within the 

essays, which was the main argument of the original piece of writing. I focused greatly on the 

idea that, in high school students were taught to avoid personal pronouns such as, “I” or “we” 

however once we came to college it was emphasized to properly utilize these personal pronouns 

to create and strengthen an essay. I believe that I chose to emphasize this point because I could 

relate to it with my personal life. During my high school to college transition, I would have never 

thought that it would be proper to utilize “I” within an academic paper. I felt that this would be a 

common idea for many students, the audience, which would lead them to feel a personal 

connection towards the comic. This was portrayed when the students received a poor grade on 

their essay in highschool because of their use of personal pronouns. However when they did not 

utilize personal pronouns within their paper in college they received a poor grade. In the next 

frame , it is shown that after the student speaks to the professor, he encourages the student to 

utilize personal pronouns and explains how to use them, which leads the student to receive an 

excellent grade.  

Unlike the original piece of writing which carried an academic purpose, the new genre 

translation is non academic. I still decided to choose the audience with a background in 

education or students in college or high school. The difference between the audience for the 

original piece of writing and my genre translation was how the audience would interpret the 

comic strip. Unlike the audience for the writing piece, ““I need you to say ‘I’”: Why First Person 

Is Important in College Writing,” who read the article to gain knowledge on when to use the 
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different personal pronouns within their essay, the comic strip was intended to create humor 

almost in a mocking way where it imitates the way that students are taught and even prohibited 

to use personal pronouns. In one of the class readings, “Reflective Writing and the Revision 

Process: What Were You Thinking?,” by Sandra L. Giles, Giles claims that, “Intentions—a sense 

of audience and purpose and of what the writer wants the essay to do” (Giles, 198). Despite that 

the main argument of both the original piece of writing and the genre conversion are similar, the 

purpose behind these two pieces are different.  

In the genre translation, the importance of some details within the original pieces were 

heightened and the others were either downplayed or were cut out. For example Kate McKinney 

Maddalena expatiates in ““I need you to say ‘I’”: Why First Person Is Important in College 

Writing” that the use of personal pronouns is necessary when clarifying who said what, 

ownership, intellectual involvement and exigency, and objectivity and creativity (Maddalena, p. 

181). In the comic strip I did mention these points however unlike the original article, I did not 

emphasize these points or go in depth. Instead I emphasized the idea of how we were not able to 

use these personal pronouns in high school because they were not “proper” which heavily 

visualized the mocking humor within my comic. Additionally, I highlighted the success of using 

personal pronouns by portraying a student receiving a good grade after utilizing these personal 

pronouns properly. I came to the conclusion that this was the best way to maintain the main idea 

of the original piece while changing the interpretation of the audience because the audience will 

be able to personally relate and learn from the comic strip while still being able to enjoy it. 
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While creating the comic strip, I was faced with many obstacles regarding the correct 

frames, moments and flow. The most challenging part of this genre translation was deciding 

which parts of the original writing piece were necessary and which parts were not. As portrayed 

in week 7 reading, “Writing with Pictures,” by McCloud, the choice of moment or the selection 

process plays an important role in ensuring the clarity of the concepts within the comic 

(McCloud, p.12). It is important that I use the right frames and the right moments from the 

original piece of writing. If I were to skip any scene within the comic the story line would not 

make sense. Another challenge within the genre translation was the formatting or framing the 

moments within the comic. As McCloud mentions in “Writing with Pictures,” depending on how 

one decides compositional factors like cropping, balance, and tilt affects, it could affect the 

readers’ impression on the comic (McCloud, p. 19) I had to make sure that the images within 

each scene were zoomed in or out properly so that the readers would understand the main points 

of the comic rather than being distracted by the background of each frame. The last challenge I 

had when creating the comic strip was the flow of each scene. If I were to skip any box within 

the comic strip, the flow would be destroyed leaving the audience confused. I believe that with 

this genre translation there was a very fine line between academic and non academic, I continued 

to maintain the concept of personal pronouns however shifted the focus on how and when to use 

these personal pronouns rather how to use these concepts to create a visual of the mocking sense 

of humor within the comic.  

Through this genre translation I was able to gain more insight of how one can translate 

their “old” genre into their “new” one while still maintaining the main concepts of the “old” 

genre. Before this project I would have never thought that one could change the whole meaning 
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and intended audience of a certain writing piece. I believed that once an academic article it 

would maintain an academic article. Additionally I learned that even with a comic strip I could 

visually manifest the idea that was written in a writing piece. 

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Sources: 

Giles, Sandara L. (2010). Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You 

Thinking? General format. Retrieved from 

https://gauchospace.ucsb.edu/courses/pluginfile.php/6162356/mod_resource/content/1/giles--refl

ective-writing-and-the-revision-process.pdf 

Maddalena, Kate McKinney (2010). “I need you to say ‘I’”: Why First Person Is Important in 

College Writing, General format. Retreived from 

https://gauchospace.ucsb.edu/courses/pluginfile.php/7858868/mod_resource/content/1/mckinney

-maddalena--i-need-you-to-say-i.pdf 

McCloud, Writing with pictures, Clarity, Persuasion, and Intensity. General format. Retrieved 

from  

https://gauchospace.ucsb.edu/courses/pluginfile.php/8218229/mod_resource/content/0/McCloud

_Chapter_Writing%20With%20Pictures_extended_version.pdf