Writing Project 2

Opiate Addiction Expressed in Academic and Journalistic Genres Through Translation

Eislyn Snyder

Alison Bocchino

WRIT 2

December 14, 2020

The addictive nature of

opiate medication and its

perpetuation of the Opioid

epidemic
by Eislyn Snyder

Across the United States, the Opioid Crisis has wreaked havoc on cities, families and

individuals alike.

While common opiate medications such as hydrocodone, oxycodone, and morphine are

sometimes necessary forms of pain mitigation, their addictive and potentially life-threatening

properties have devastated a vast portion of American society. Scholars have attempted to find

the root causes of the epidemic, and have discovered the primary cause––opioids’ addictive

nature.

Numerous scholars have discovered clear ties between opioids’ inherently addictive

composition and increased rates of morbidity and mortality. Morbidity is defined as the rate of

disease in a population, while mortality refers to the rate of death. The dependency-causing

chemical makeup of opiate drugs is the leading contributor to the opioid crisis the U.S. finds

itself in today.

Widespread opioid addiction can be mitigated, however, through a combination of

prevention strategies. According to Andrew Kolodny of Brandeis University and his associates, a

massive first step would be limiting the amount of opiates doctors can prescribe. Training them
to be more cautious with severe and chronic pain, too, would help alleviate the crisis.

Additionally, individuals who are prescribed should discard their opiates or return them to a

pharmacy so their family members do not intentionally or accidentally access them and become

addicted.

It’s important to ask: what got us in this position in the first place? America has

witnessed a similar crisis before in the second half of the nineteenth century, where opioid

consumption rose by 538 percent over a 50-year period. It’s no surprise that this increase

occurred considering the lack of medical information available at the time. Without a doubt, the

most significant factor leading to all types of opioid abuse such as this––both in the past and

present––is the addictive nature of opiates.

Metacognitive Reflection

Though academic journals often provide content for journalistic writing and therefore

share many similarities, they also contain distinct characteristics. Translating the academic text,

“The Prescription Opioid and Heroin Crisis: A Public Health Approach to an Epidemic of

Addiction”1 by Andrew Kolodny et al., into a news article furthered my understanding of the

conventions utilized in academic and journalistic genres. The opioid epidemic has become

widespread knowledge within the United States due to immense news coverage and research.

However, this information is more understandable for the general public in the context of

journalism than in academic articles due to the different conventions they each utilize. By

translating the academic article into journalism, I detected the disparities regarding language

usage, intended audience, and physical structure between Public Health academic texts and news

1 Andrew Kolodny, David T. Courtwright, Catherine S. Hwang, Peter Kreiner, John L. Eadie, Thomas W. Clark,
and G. Caleb Alexander, "The prescription opioid and heroin crisis: a public health approach to an epidemic of
addiction," Annual review of public health 36 (2015): pages 559-569
articles. Additionally, I was able to further grasp the differences between their individual genres

and discourse communities.

Before delving into the disparities between the articles, it is important to understand the

concept of a discourse community. Dan Melzer of California State University, Sacramento,

paraphrased linguistic scholar John Swales’ definition of discourse community in his essay

within “Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing.” He wrote,

Discourse communities have the following features...

1. A broadly agreed upon set of common public goals
2. Mechanisms of intercommunication among members
3. Use of these communication mechanisms to provide information and feedback
4. One or more genres that help further the goals of the discourse community
5. A specific lexis (specialized language)
6. A threshold level of expert members.2
Furthermore, the theoretical rules or goals set by authority figures (perhaps esteemed and long-

standing scholars) in these discourse communities can be challenged and changed, according to

author Ann M. Johns.3 Additionally, John Swales asserts in his paper, “Reflections on the

concept of discourse community,” that there are three types of discourse communities: local,

focal, and folocal.4 The last type of discourse community is what will be focused on within this

essay. Folocal communities are “hybrid communities whose members have a double—and

sometimes split—allegiance, as they are confronted by internal and external challenges and

pressures…”5 This applies to Kolodny et al.’s research team, who are each individually affiliated

with universities and outside public health-related groups. My translation too, would be a part of

a folocal community if published; journalists take part in the inner workings of their publication,

but are also often connected to other newspapers across the country or world.
2 Dan Melzer, “Understanding Discourse Communities,” in Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 3 (Parlor
Press LLC, 2020), pages 24-27
3 Ann M. Johns, “Discourse Communities and Communities of Practice: Membership, Conflict, and Diversity,” in
Text, Role and Context: Developing Academic Literacies, 51–70. Cambridge Applied Linguistics. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1997. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139524650.006.
4 Swales, John M. "Reflections on the concept of discourse community." ASp. la revue du GERAS 69 (2016): 7-19.
5 Swales, John M. "Reflections on the concept of discourse community." N/A.
 In the context of this paper, the original academic text belongs to the public health

academic discourse community. This is especially visible due to its usage of unfamiliar jargon to

anyone outside of the public health sector. My translation, however, is associated with the

journalism discourse community. It uses clearer language and defines terms that would be

understood by its new primary audience––everyday individuals reading the newspaper. It is also

essential to fully grasp what conventions journalists generally use in order to understand why I

incorporated certain techniques. After reading ““The Catholic Sex Abuse Crisis Is Far From

Over” by Elizabeth Bruenig of The New York Times,6 “Amy Coney Barrett served as a

‘handmaid’ in Christian group People of Praise” by Emma Brown, Jon Swaine, and Michelle

Boorstein of The Washington Post7, and “How Georgia Activists Shattered the Republican

South” Emily Green from VICE News8, I deduced the differences in formatting and writing style

between scholars and journalists and what conventions I needed to replicate within my

translation. These conventions include straightforward language usage, utilization of

authoritative, statistical, and anecdotal evidence depending on the type of article, use of a more

casual tone, and a structure presenting the most interesting and important information near the

top of the article. It is also necessary to acknowledge the various genres of journalism, such as

news, opinion, feature, and many others. While there is a large amount of overlap, different

conventions are used depending on the genre. For instance, a feature article––such as the piece

regarding abuse within the Catholic church referenced above––may be longer in length with

immense detail while news is often short and to the point.

6 Bruenig, Elizabeth. “The Catholic Sex Abuse Crisis Is Far From Over.” The New York Times. The New York
Times, November 11, 2020.
7 Brown, Emma, Jon Swaine, and Michelle Boorstein. “Amy Coney Barrett Served as a 'Handmaid' in Christian
Group People of Praise.” The Washington Post. WP Company, October 8, 2020.
8 Green, Emily. “How Georgia Activists Shattered the Republican South,” November 7, 2020.
 As previously stated, one of the most apparent differences between my translation and the

original public health article is the language used within them. For example, I wrote, “It’s

important to ask: what got us in this position in the first place?” By framing it as a question, I

included the readers and made the transition from present to past especially clear. Kolodny et al.

rarely use second person unless it is in reference to the authors as “we,” which is only used three

times––twice in the abstract and once in the strategies section. For example, they wrote,

“Although some specific interventions are discussed, we do not provide an exhaustive list.”9

Their usage of second person is not inclusive of the entire community or audience. In contrast,

second person is seen frequently within articles addressing large issues, such as the opioid

epidemic in this circumstance, so I tried to emulate that. Additionally, the words “morbidity” and

“mortality” are not defined once within the academic paper, which are key jargon to understand

in order to grasp the intent behind the authors’ research. In my translation, however, I define

both terms due to the change in audience.

It is assumed based on the discourse community that the scholars take part in that this

jargon would be a part of the audience’s vocabulary already, so there would be no need to

explain them. Their audience within the public health discourse community contains other

experts, policymakers, doctors treating opioid addiction, and potentially journalists. It can be

inferred that public health experts are a part of their audience not only due to the public health-

related subject matter, but the journal the article was published in––Annual review of public

health. Policymakers would read an article like Koldony et al.’s due to the authors' opioid

addiction-prevention strategies they recommend within their findings that reference legislation.

Doctors treating opiate-addicted patients are a part of the intended audience as well so they can

9 Kolodny, Andrew, et al. "The prescription opioid and heroin crisis: a public health approach to an epidemic of
addiction." Page 565.
alter their treatments based on the experts’ recommendations. My translation has a similar

audience, however there is a significant difference. While it can be read by the groups included

in the public health discourse community listed above, it also aims to be read by everyday

individuals due to the nature of being published in a newspaper. By using more casual language

and explaining potentially unknown jargon as discussed in the paragraph above, I was able to

appeal more to the journalism discourse community and alter my intended audience.

My translation is visibly different to the original article because of changes in physical

structure as well. I organized the information to look like a newspaper article, including a

notably large headline, much smaller byline, and a featured image regarding the contents of the

article. Additionally, the text wraps around the image, similar to that of a news piece. The

academic text is formatted very differently; the title of the article is noticeable but not as distinct

and is white, the information is organized by clear sections separated with headers, and it overall

follows the academic process beginning with an abstract and ending with a conclusion. Its

headings include, “REFRAMING THE OPIOID CRISIS AS AN EPIDEMIC OF

ADDICTION” with subheaders such as, “Opioid Harms Are Not Limited to Nonmedical

Users.”10 I intentionally left out headings like these because they are much less common in

journalistic writing. If they are utilized, it is often in extremely long investigative pieces that

require sections so the readers do not get confused with the mass amounts of information

provided. However, my translation is a short summary of an issue, and therefore does not require

headers.

When translating the original academic text into the non academic journalism genre, one

main problem arose. It was especially challenging to stay within the word limit when trying to

10 Kolodny, Andrew, et al. "The prescription opioid and heroin crisis: a public health approach to an epidemic of
addiction.” Page 563.
summarize the information from the public health article in my translation. There are so many

different components of their paper and, in turn, shortening their content into 300 words or less

proved difficult. Consequently, I had to pick and choose the information I deemed important in

order to complete my translation, and I still went over the limit by about 100 words.

Translating Kolodny et al.’s academic text into a journalism article was not only an

interesting process, but it shed light on the differences between the two genres. While writing, I

included specific conventions associated with journalism––straightforward language usage that

led to the altering of the intended audience, and a change in physical and textual structure. By

translating an academic article into a nonacademic text, I was able to solidify my understanding

of discourse communities and genres alike.

Bibliography

Brown, Emma, Jon Swaine, and Michelle Boorstein. “Amy Coney Barrett Served as a

'Handmaid' in Christian Group People of Praise.” The Washington Post. WP Company,

October 8, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/amy-coney-barrett-

people-of-praise/2020/10/06/5f497d8c-0781-11eb-859b-f9c27abe638d_story.html.

Bruenig, Elizabeth. “The Catholic Sex Abuse Crisis Is Far From Over.” The New York Times.

The New York Times, November 11, 2020.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/10/opinion/McCarrick-Catholic-sex-abuse.html.
Burns, Christopher. “Data: More Opioids Were Handed Out Per Person In Penobscot County

Than Anywhere Else In New England.” Maine Public, July 18, 2019.

https://www.mainepublic.org/post/data-more-opioids-were-handed-out-person-penobscot-

county-anywhere-else-new-england.

Green, Emily. “How Georgia Activists Shattered the Republican South,” November 7, 2020.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/93wyk8/how-georgia-activists-shattered-the-republican-

south.

Johns, Ann M. “Discourse Communities and Communities of Practice: Membership, Conflict,

and Diversity.” Chapter. In Text, Role and Context: Developing Academic Literacies, 51–

70. Cambridge Applied Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

doi:10.1017/CBO9781139524650.006.

Kolodny, Andrew, David T. Courtwright, Catherine S. Hwang, Peter Kreiner, John L. Eadie,

Thomas W. Clark, and G. Caleb Alexander. "The prescription opioid and heroin crisis: a

public health approach to an epidemic of addiction." Annual review of public health 36

(2015).

Melzer, Dan. “Understanding Discourse Communities” Chapter. Writing Spaces: Readings on

Writing, Volume 3. Parlor Press LLC, 2020.