TRANSLATING AN ACADEMIC ARTICLE INTO A PERSONAL LETTER.

Jinxiang Ma

Writing 2

November 5, 2020
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Translation

Jinxiang Ma

Translation of Pierre Somse & Patrick M. Eba

Lessons from HIV to Guide COVID-19 Responses in the Central African Republic

UC Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara, California

October 22, 2020

Donald J. Trump,

President of the United States,

White House

Washington, D.C.

Dear President Trump:

The recent coronavirus pandemic has made 2020 an unusual year. As the coronavirus

continues to spread across the world, thousands and hundreds of people have lost their lives in

this global pandemic. According to the coronavirus statistics, around 236,000 Americans lost

their lives in this outbreak. It's difficult for me to connect with the reality of what each of these

deaths represents. Most of them once had a family and an American dream; however, the

coronavirus draws their lives to an end. The HIV response in the Central African Republic 40

years ago was a model for outbreak response. Fewer Americans may have died from coronavirus
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if we draw lessons from the past. As a student, I believe that it is my responsibility to bring your

attention to the following facts and recommendations that generalized from the HIV pandemic:

First, public health response won't be effective without the support of scientific evidence

and correct information. Scientific evidence will guide you to make proper decisions to contain

the virus, such as limit public gatherings. Pay more attention to health experts and health

institutions, such as Dr. Fauci and WTO. As a president, you should listen to their advice and

share them with the media and communities. Fake, misleading information like injecting

disinfectant as treatment is counterproductive for outbreak response and contrary to the laws of

science.

Second, community engagement is essential for the implementation of public health

policy. My suggestion is to develop a mechanism that the community can better keep the

government and its agencies responsible for leading and implementing COVID responses. The

role of a president would be a bridge between people and government agencies. For example,

when you communicate with the community in an election campaign, you should let people

understand the severity of coronavirus and encourage them to practice social distancing. Your

credibility as president will ensure the acceptance of isolation and other restrictions in

communities.

Third, upholding human rights helps the government to build trust in those people who

are vulnerable in the pandemic. Racial conflicts are intense in our society. One possible way to

mitigate racial conflict is to improve our healthcare system and make medical and health services

more equitable and accessible. Advocating the Zero Discrimination Day, which originates from

the HIV pandemic in Central Africa, would be an alternative for you to advance the protection of

humans in the current situation.

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Lastly, responding to pandemics such as HIV and COVID-19 requires mobilized

leadership and international solidarity. Around 24.5 million people received antiretroviral

treatment since the HIV epidemic, and this cannot happen without multilateralism and global

cooperation. As the president, you may exchange information and resources with other countries,

personally involved in the COVID-19 response, and supervise the implementation of measures to

curb the spread of the virus. The United States should adopt positive experiences from other

countries to guide or adjust the epidemic response. For example, experiences from China and

South Korea were proved effective in response to COVID-19.

Given the current public health emergency, I urge you to exercise your powers as broadly

as possible to curb the spread of COVID-19. The United States must leverage all the available

technological, medical, and financial resources to respond aggressively against this pandemic. I

understand that the coronavirus will not disappear in the foreseeable future, but America will get

through this crisis with your help.

Respectfully,

Jinxiang
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Explication Essay

COVID-19, a word that most people have never heard before, disrupted many peoples'

lives and turned 2020 into a terrible year. It stands for the new coronavirus and the

unprecedented pandemic. Due to the lack of public attention and virus testing in the early stage

of the COVID pandemic, the virus silently spread throughout the globe. When people realized

the presence of the virus, it was almost too late to take action as coronavirus cases skyrocket in

the United States. In the article, "Lessons from HIV to Guide COVID-19 Responses in the

Central African Republic, "​1​Pierre Some, et al. expose the shortcoming in COVID response and

elaborate on the lesson they have learned from the HIV pandemic. This study concluded that

scientific involvement, community involvement, human rights protection, and leadership are the

key elements of an outbreak response.

For my genre translation, I decided to translate this peer-reviewed article into a personal

letter to the president. In the last few months, I witnessed how the outbreak gradually lost control

in the United States. President Trump deliberately downplays the coronavirus outbreak, and as a

result, many Americans didn't realize the severity of this virus. My goal is to convince the

president that the HIV response was effective and encourage him to take similar actions. I

understand that the lessons learned from the HIV outbreak still apply to the current situation, and

a passionate personal letter is more likely to convince the audience. An effective personal letter

to the president requires the writer to modify traditional conventions of personal letter such as

1
Somse, Pierre, and Patrick M. Eba. "Lessons from HIV to Guide COVID-19 Responses
in the Central African Republic." ​Health and Human Rights​ 22, no. 1 (2020): 371-74
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format and tones, to analyze exigence, audience, and constraint to identify the rhetorical

situation, and to utilize rhetorical devices such as pathos and logos to persuade the intended

audience.

In the article, "Genre in the wild: Understanding Genre within Rhetorical (Eco)systems,"

author Lisa Bickmore points out that "Genres are both stable and to some degrees fluid and

evolving, just as human communication itself is both predictable and unpredictable."​2​ Even

though this translation is a personal letter, there is some nuance that differentiates it from other

personal emails that we write to our friends or classmates. A writing piece that helps me to create

my translation is the famous Einstein–Szilárd letter​3​, which is a letter about developing atomic

weapons written by Leo Szilard and Albert Einstein. My genre translation was inspired from this

letter, such as the genre conventions and the tone of writing. Since I am writing a letter to the

president, I should write in a respectful tone and use scientific evidence and historical facts to

convince the audience. Genre is dynamic because the rhetorical situation is not always the same.

As a writer, I can make some adjustments on genre in order to fit my writing purpose.

Understanding the rhetorical situation allows a writer to lay out his texts in a way that is

most appealing to his audience. According to the article, "Backpack vs. Briefcases: Steps

Toward Rhetorical Analysis," author Laura Carroll introduces the three key elements to approach

the context of a rhetorical situation, which is exigence, audience, and constraints. She

emphasizes the importance of exigence because exigence "help[s] you begin to discover the

purpose of the rhetoric."​4​ The exigence is essentially a series of questions that prompt us to write.

2
Bickmore, Lisa. Genre in the Wild: Understanding Genre Within Rhetorical
(Eco)Systems. ​Open English​ (SLCC, 1 Aug. 2016).
3
Szilárd, Leó, and Albert Einstein. Letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt. “Einstein–Szilárd
Letter.” New York, NY: Long Island (August 2, 1939).
4
Carroll, Laura Bolin. “Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis.”
Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing​ (2010), 49.
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For example, the exigence of my translation would be giving possible solutions for the COVID

response. On the other hand, the audience is the recipient of the rhetorical message and the

respondent of the exigence. The audience for the original article consisted of researchers and

scientists in epidemiology, as well as educated people who have a medical background.

However, the primary audience of my translation is going to be the President, as he will read and

respond to my letter. If this letter is published, Americans who are impacted by this pandemic

would be the secondary audience of this translation. Lastly, the constraints are the limitation on

how the rhetoric is being presented. For instance, a personal letter must be written from a

first-person perspective. Implement hedges when making suggestions. Personal information such

as name, address, and date are needed, so the audience will quickly identify the person who

wrote this letter. Polite greeting and closing are requirements in writing personal letters,

especially writing a letter to the president. Furthermore, the postage would also be considered as

one of the constraints of a personal letter.

Rhetorical appeals, such as ethos, pathos, and logos, are the means of persuading others

to believe a particular point of view, which is very suitable for writing personal letters. As

Carroll asserts, "Pathetic appeals...used alone without logos and ethos can come across as

emotionally manipulative or overly sentimental, but are very powerful when used in conjunction

with the other two appeals."​5​ Rhetorical devices enhance the credibility of my genre translation.

For instance, in the first paragraph of my translation, I utilized statistical data such as the COVID

death toll to emphasize the severity of this outbreak, which is an example of logos. Then I use

pathos to convince the president by saying that there would have been fewer deaths if we draw

5
Carroll, 53.
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lessons from the past. Combining logos and pathos not only make my message more powerful

but also increase the likelihood to successfully convince my audience.

The overall experience of genre translation is a good practice for me to be a good writer.

As a college student, we will explore all sorts of topics and genres in future writing class.

   
Choosing a random topic and translating it into a random genre have trained our innovative skills

and helped us better prepare for future writings. By writing a personal letter, I changed an

academic article into something I wish to write. This translation is meaningful because it might

open up the opportunity for the president to take action, and as a result, save more lives in the

current outbreak. Witnessing how the COVID case skyrocketed in the past few months makes

me feel a bit disappointed with the current outbreak response. The president has the

responsibility to curb the spread, yet he focuses on reviving our economy rather than controlling

the outbreak. Nevertheless, it is never too late to make a change. One thing that motivates me to

write this letter is my wish to end the pandemic so that everything goes back to normal. I hope

our health officials, as well as the president, can learn lessons from the HIV response and act

aggressively to the current pandemic.

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Bibliography

Bickmore, Lisa. Genre in the Wild: Understanding Genre Within Rhetorical (Eco)Systems​.
Open English​ @ SLCC, 1 Aug. 2016,
openenglishatslcc.pressbooks.com/chapter/genre-in-the-wild-understanding-genre-within-r
hetorical-ecosystems/

Carroll, Laura Bolin. “Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis.” ​Writing
Spaces: Readings on Writing​, 2010.
https://writingspaces.org/sites/default/files/carroll--backpacks-vs-briefcases.pdf.

Somse, Pierre, and Patrick M. Eba. "Lessons from HIV to Guide COVID-19 Responses in the
Central African Republic." ​Health and Human Rights​ 22, no. 1 (2020): 371-74. Accessed
October 28, 2020. doi:10.2307/26923508.

Szilárd, Leó, and Albert Einstein. Letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt. “Einstein–Szilárd Letter.”
New York, NY: Long Island, August 2, 1939.