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Let’s Talk Listen About Sex Trafficking

Karissa Low

WRIT 2 (section 2400)

24 November, 2020

 
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Part 2: Metacognitive Reflection

In the previous part of Writing Project 2, I translated a research article from the

psychology discipline into a blog post about sex trafficking. The topic at hand in both the

published, academic article and student-written blog post is the same: the emotional experiences

of ten Indian women post-rescue from sex trafficking. Likewise, the purpose of both writing

pieces is to inform readers. Conventional differences are seen in how this message is delivered to

the corresponding audience. In other words, the why of both the blog and article are identical,

but the how is divergent. Within this metacognitive reflection, I intend to show how the purpose

of the article and the blog post is comparable, and how the conventions for each respective

writing piece signifies the audience and structure. Additionally, I will explain how these

differences and similarities influenced my choices in translating the article into a blog post. Last,

I will reveal the relevance of discourse communities when discussing topics like sex trafficking.

My primary text is an academic article titled “Emotional Needs of Women Post-Rescue

from Sex Trafficking in India” by Irani Machado da Silva and Anuradha Sathiyaseelan. The

article explores the emotional needs of sex trafficking survivors in India through a

phenomenological approach and thematic analysis. Interviews with ten Indian women, ages 18-

24, who were trafficked from two to ten years, create the focal point of the article. The article

belongs to the discipline of psychology, which is made clear by the article’s publisher, Cogent

Psychology, and the author’s credentials as a Clinical Psychologist. The discourse community of

the article is closely related to its discipline, speaking primarily to other psychologists and

scholars who may be interested in the conducted research, or the topic of sex trafficking. The

author implores the audience to “understand sex trafficking survivors better,”1 leading to the

1
Irani Machado da Silva and Sathiyaseelan Anuradha, “Emotional Needs of Women Post-Rescue from Sex
Trafficking in India,” Cogent. Cogent Psychology 6, no. 1 (June 16, 2019): 1, 10.
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main purpose of the article, to inform. Since the author belongs to a scholarly discourse

community, there are criterions and constraints she must follow to be seen as credible. The

standards making up the psychology discourse community are imperative to the conventions of

the article, and are primarily seen in the structure and audience.

To start, the format of the primary text follows the scientific method, revealing a specific

structure used within the psychology discipline. Specific standards like structure ensure

consistency and validity in research. Machado da Silva is looking for ethos by employing this

format, and appeals to other members of the discourse community. An example of this appeal

can be seen in analysis and findings, under the third section of the article, results and discussion

that reads, “The data was analyzed, and major themes arose from the data. The themes were

organized in categories, and they are a desire to satisfy the emotional needs and expectations of

survivors post-rescue.”2 Here, the author clearly explains how the collected data was analyzed,

using terminology and discourse appropriate and applicable by others in the discipline. Machado

da Silva uses the rigid structure to reinforce her research objective and establish effectiveness in

informing her discourse community.

The second conventional component is audience. The ‘who’ in the article is clearly stated

in the rationale section when the author states “that it is essential to bring this topic to the

awareness of students, psychologists and professionals so everyone can assist girls suffering

from sadness, humiliation, and pain in their life post-rescue.”3. Any speculation about audience is

resolved in this claim, as well as supporting pivotal ideas within the discipline. Psychology

works towards the understanding of people in order to help people, a philosophy that certainly

2
Irani Machado da Silva and Sathiyaseelan Anuradha, “Emotional Needs of Women Post-Rescue from Sex
Trafficking in India,” 4.
3
da Silva, 2.
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exists in Machado da Silva’s article, who’s task is to understand the emotional needs of women

so that they may get the assistance they need.

The non-academic genre I chose to translate from the academic article was a blog post.

Looking at other blog posts as examples enabled me to synthesize universal conventions of the

genre. Primary conventions include a specific objective, flexible structure, and reader-friendly

language. Beginning with the first convention, I noticed all three blogs had objectives which

related to either informing, involving, or influencing readers. The first blog titled “Thoughts on

being Black in the Sex Trade,” strives to educate the audience on a black woman’s perspective.4

The impact of sex trafficking is great, and the implications of compounded discrimination and

racism can make it greater. This blog in particular aims to inform readers as its main objective.

The second blog seeks to involve its readers. Titled, “Human Trafficking Awareness: What you

CAN do,” it begins stating January is human trafficking awareness month, sharing how readers

can contribute to their global campaign in helping survivors by fundraising.5 The objective is to

recruit involvement in supporting women who are impacted by sex trafficking. The third blog by

Cheri Crider focuses on influencing readers. The blog is titled “Lessons Learned about

Trafficking 40 Years Later: A Survivor’s Perspective,” and gives a survivor’s personal account,

while also addressing ideas and solutions for the reader to consider. The author of the third blog

influences her audience by presenting her own experience as leverage to bolster ideas to incite

change. For instance, she advocates for affecting traffickers reputations by publishing the names

4
“Thoughts on Being Black in the Sex Trade,”, REST (blog), August 28, 2020,
https://iwantrest.com/blog/thoughts-on-being-black-in-the-sex-trade.

5
“Human Trafficking Awareness: What you CAN do,” Free the Girls (blog), January 8, 2019,
https://freethegirls.org/blog/tag/sex+trafficking.
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of buyers who are arrested for purchasing sex in newspapers and online.6 Looking at other

examples of blog posts helped me identify the three main objectives blogs typically have.

Moving on to structure, I believe this conventional component is arguably the most

distinctive in comparison to my primary text. There is flexibility in type face, font size,

paragraph size, and overall structure, so one blog may not resemble another. In some cases, there

were photos and other visual aids which functioned to engage readers. Compared to pages of

paragraphs in black ink within academia, blogs employ an array of colors to stimulate the eyes.

This diverse set of structural standards adds to the relatability of blogs. By creating little to no

limitations, there is an increased sense of freedom and ability to express oneself. By translating

the academic article into a blog post, I deconstructed its rigid structure and broadened its

audience to include the ‘average joe’. This leads me into the last convention, audience.

In a blog, the audience could be anyone browsing the internet. Instead of appealing to

scholars by using academic jargon and systematic structures to back up claims, blogs rely mostly

on facts and passion. While the authors of blogs may be credible, they belong to a discourse

community that is not as stringent or defined as other forms of empirical research. Because of

this, blogs are inherently casual and the respective audience responds to discourse that is more

relatable. By employing basic language, there is more inclusion, allowing a diverse audience. By

taking the topic into consideration, it is appropriate to assume the audience includes anyone who

can read and is interested in sex trafficking or critical social issues of the status quo. A broad

audience means more exposure and recipients of the author’s message. Especially when dealing

with an issue like sex trafficking, where most of the general public lack basic knowledge about

its realities, spreading the word can be just as important as the message itself.

6
Cheri Crider, “Lessons Learned about Trafficking 40 Years Later: A Survivor’s Perspective,” Polaris Project
(blog), October 16, 2020, https://polarisproject.org/blog/2020/10/lessons-learned-about-trafficking-40-years-later-a-
survivors-perspective/
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Within my translation I transformed a research article into a blog post. At first, I was

worried readers would not be able to tell the genre I was translating. Overthinking elongated my

writing process significantly, and fortunately I recalled reading Peter Elbow who made a

distinction between two types of thinking in the writing process, first-order and second-order.7 I

was attempting to master my blog genre through second-order thinking, and was “committed to

accuracy,” striving for, “logic and control,” while missing the point of a blog entirely.8 After

realizing this, I began to “write fast without censoring,” allowing my stream of consciousness to

lead me to associations and intuitions I had not foreseen.9 I began to make progress, gaining

traction in contouring my blogs specific objective, and ensuring I used uncomplicated language.

I had a single, clear desire when embarking on this translation: to make the interview portion of

the academic article my center piece in the blog post. I felt it was central for these women’s

voices to be amplified in any way I could in my translation. As a result, I made their words the

focal point. It was essential for me to abide by the conventions of a blog post as much as

possible. I did not wish to break or bend hardly any rules, and instead preserved the universal

conventions. My motivation here most likely derives from my earlier fear of deviating from the

blog genre. As a result, I strove for my writing to resemble a blog as much as possible, relying on

the formatting to reinforce the genre as well. When formatting, I chose to use a striking photo to

draw readers in, and highlighted quotes in color to indicate importance. To emulate a blog, I

selected words to bold and enlarged sentences to show significance and create typographic

diversity. My goal was to pull the readers eyes’ to specific places on the page, using the flexible

structure to my advantage. Furthermore, the constraints of academic discourse communities are

7
Peter Elbow, Embracing Contraries: Explorations in Learning and Teaching (New York: Oxford University Press,

1986), 55.
8
Peter, Elbow, Embracing Contraries: Explorations in Learning and Teaching, 55.
9
Elbow, 55.
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more rigid than an internet blog post. Because blogs have few limitations, there was a marketable

shift in structure and deliverance of information. I struggled to simplify jargon and include

sufficient information while creating my own structure that would be recognized easily as a blog

post.

In order to perform this translation, I needed to have a solid understanding of both

respective discourse communities and how they operate. I reviewed Dan Mezler’s

“Understanding Discourse Communities,” to affirm my knowledge regarding what a discourse

community entails, looking over the six specified features mentioned in Mezler’s essay.10 This

understanding leads to my final point. Within this paper, I have shown how the purpose of both

the academic article and blog post seek to inform. The methods by which this is accomplished,

however, differs due to distinct discourse communities. Discourse communities speak to their

members uniquely, a feature mentioned by Mezler.11 How discourse communities contrast in

delivering information subsequently impacts who is consuming that information. The ‘who’ in

this scenario, matters, especially because of the topic. Sex trafficking is a critical human rights

issue, and demands attention if conditions are to improve. Attracting the attention from the right

people could be a meaningful step in making progress. All things considered, discourse

communities become relevant when discussing topics like sex trafficking, because the purpose to

inform may extend beyond basic education to become an activist who is able to incite reform.

Bibliography

10
Dan Mezler, “Understanding Discourse Communities,” in Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, ed. Charles Lowe
and Pavel Zemliansky (Parlor Press 2020), 102.
11
Dan Mezler, “Understanding Discourse Communities,” 102.
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Crider, Cheri, “Lessons Learned about Trafficking 40 Years Later: A Survivor’s Perspective,”

Polaris Project (blog), October 16, 2020, https://polarisproject.org/blog/2020/10/lessons-

learned-about-trafficking-40-years-later-a-survivors-perspective/.

Elbow, Peter, Embracing Contraries: Explorations in Learning and Teaching New York: Oxford

University Press, 1986.

“Human Trafficking Awareness: What you CAN do,” Free the Girls (blog), January 8, 2019,

https://freethegirls.org/blog/tag/sex+trafficking.

Irani Machado da Silva, and Sathiyaseelan Anuradha, “Emotional Needs of Women Post-Rescue from

Sex Trafficking in India.” Cogent. Cogent Psychology. June 16, 2019.

Mezler, Dan, “Understanding Discourse Communities,” in Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, ed.

Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky, 100-115. Parlor Press 2020.

Nafula, Annah, October 25, 2018, photo, 800 x 419.

“Thoughts on Being Black in the Sex Trade,”, REST (blog), August 28, 2020,

https://iwantrest.com/blog/thoughts-on-being-black-in-the-sex-trade.