Writing project 2: Genre Translation

Ashley Son

WRIT 2

Valentina Fahler

5/24/20
 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.(expand on this

idea) my audience.

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 with

the 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.(add introductory paragraph to

briefly bring up arguments and ideas) (why was it efficient?) 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 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 greatlyfocused on 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 scene, 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. Despite that 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 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. In my new genre translation I

decided to keep the main points of the writing piece however they were not as significant as they

were in the original piece of writing. 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.

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

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. (add what the main argument was

about)
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--

reflective-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