The Process of Turning a Scientific Article into a Magazine Cover

Emily Tan

University of California, Santa Barbara

WRIT 2- Academic Writing

Ms. Valentina Fahler

November 21, 2021

 The journal article I decided to translate is “A review of sleep disorders and melatonin” by Zizhen

Xie, a peer-reviewed article is about the effects of melatonin on sleep disorders. I decided to translate this

information into the form of a magazine cover. The source is originally meant for health experts regarding

whether melatonin is a suitable supplement for those who experience specific sleep disorders. The new

media I’m converting this information is meant for the average person to understand. One should be able

to read the headline and understand what the article is about. This puts a lot of pressure on narrowing the

information in the article down to only a couple of sentences. This translation proved to have many

challenges especially with grabbing the key information. The goal of this translation is to reach a new

audience and convey this information in an easy-to-read manner.

As I’ve grown older, my sleep schedule has changed and as of recently I’ve had issues sleeping.

The typical response from a friend is to sleep earlier, however, I’ve found that this strategy has left me

awake for hours lying in my bed, internally begging my brain to fall asleep. Melatonin is a supplement

that has helped me fall asleep easier, but I know it’s not appropriate to recommend melatonin to everyone,

especially those who have been diagnosed with a sleep disorder. In order to education myself, and another

audience, I decided to choose “A review of sleep disorders and melatonin” as my primary source. It

discusses the effects of melatonin on those who have insomnia, hypersomnolence, and parasomnias.

When I chose my primary source, I wasn’t sure how to approach the reading. I’ve read scientific

journal articles and research papers before, however, in my past experiences I made a presentation with

the audience being other professionals in the field. I found that decomposing the article was easier when I

became more conscious of the fact that I wasn’t the primary audience for this article, it’s meant for other

professionals. When approaching scholarly articles, it’s important to remember that “there’s a formula for

these types of texts” (Rosenberg, 2011, p. 213). There’s a different format and strategy when authors are

writing their articles. To help myself better approach this article, I studied the key components and

structure of the article. In my specific source there was the abstract, introduction, results, and conclusion.

I broke down the parts of the scientific article, knowing that it’s key to focus on the abstract in the
beginning and taking more time on the material as the information got more specific. I then looked at the

table, which was especially useful since it explicitly stated the positive uses of melatonin on each sleep

disorder. For example, in table 1, the first column was named “sleep disorder” and next column “benefits”

(Xie, 2017). After reading the table, reading the explanation was easier since I was already expecting the

results. For example, in table 1, it said that for people with parasomnia, melatonin “decreases muscle

tonicity” (Xie, 2017). This meant that the muscles were more relaxed while sleeping, showing me that

when the article discusses parasomnia, I’m looking for these results and can easily match up the reasoning

behind this.

As I continued to translate the media, I realized that I had to be extremely conscious of the

audience I would now be reporting to. The audience has changed to people who are interested in news

stories, drama in the media, and want entertainment. People read magazines and tabloids to be

entertained, or they skim the cover while waiting in line in grocery stores to see the stories they have. One

of the first problems I faced when I started reading the article was translating the jargon used. Initially, I

wanted to explain why melatonin worked in treating insomnia or in other sleeping disorders. I wanted to

be specific, give background, and details, however I couldn’t fit all of that into a magazine cover. I also

know that people who typically read magazines wouldn’t care that “melatonin is important in the

treatment of insomnia by activating MT1 and MT2 melatonin receptors” (Xie, 2017, p. 560). These

sentences with medical jargon felt awkward and didn’t fit the tone for the new translation. I soon

concluded that the reason I wanted to add a complicated explanation was to prove that I understood what I

was reading. However, it can be quite the opposite, “If the information in a text is well organized and laid

out visually, a reader will likely find that text to be more credible than if the information is ill-sequenced,

poorly explained, or badly displayed” (Bickmore). This reading made me realize that I don’t need to add

extra unnecessary information to seem credible. This convinced me to take out the specific, dense

scientific explanation and chose to only include the conclusions made by the article. I kept the effects of

melatonin on the different sleep disorders, the positive or negative applications. I did this to avoid
confusing the reader as the scientific explanation required the use of scientific jargon. For example, I kept

that melatonin could lessen apnea induced cardiovascular disease, however I decided to remove that fact

that melatonin inhibits the expression of inflammatory cytokines, which contribute to cardiac

inflammation (Xie, 2017, p. 560).

Another challenge I faced was explaining what each sleeping disorder was without making it

sound awkward. I took example from other magazine covers and identified its components, which

includes subheadings, headlines, and graphics. On a magazine cover, there are also subheadings on the

side that will describe other stories in the entire magazine. For these subheadings, I decided to put how

melatonin affects the different sleeping disorders, the results of the article. To successfully do this, first I

had to identify my intentions. I had to be aware of my intentions and as Giles said, have “a sense of

audience and purpose and of what the writer wants the essay to do” (Giles, 2010, p. 198). I wanted to stay

true to the media I was translating this work into. I had limited sentence space, so I didn’t want to waste

sentences on describing what each sleep disorder was however, I still needed to let the reader know what

each of them did. To figure out how to word it in the form of a headline, I figured I needed to find the

keywords of the definition of each sleep disorder. For example, parasomnia is a sleep disorder that

involves disruptions in your sleep, physical or mental. One of the experiences that occur is night terrors.

This led me to use the word “terror” in my headline. Also in the subsequent description underneath, I

continue to say the “parasomnia night terrors are over”. This lets the reader know that parasomnia is

related to night terrors and sleep disruptions without having to describe it in an unfitting scientific tone.

Translating the article required awareness of my audience, creativity, and organizational

skills. Since the new media had a significantly different audience with contrasting ways to show

information, I had to put myself in the shoes of the reader. Scientific articles use specific and

detailed medical jargon to explain the information, while magazines use visuals and brief

sentences to tell its content. I had to think about what people who typically pick up magazines
are interested in. I concluded that they want gripping headlines and an aesthetically pleasing

cover. I tried to incorporate that aspect into my cover, without losing the intellectual integrity of

the original article. This is where I needed to be creative with the headlines and captions, and of

course, with the visuals I decided to use. I used color and different text to make it appear more

fun and exciting to read. I also used photos to complement the information. For example, the one

for insomnia was a person lying in bed asleep, as melatonin aided the symptoms of it. For parasomnia,

which includes night terrors, I used a picture of a person having nightmares. The photos needed to match

the results of the study or needed to relate to the specific sleep disorder.

The two genres have distinctive features, and the process of translating the two has provided me

with insight about different rhetorics and how to approach them. The goal was to put the information in

“A review of sleep disorders and melatonin” into a new genre and inform a different audience. I put it into

the medium of a magazine cover since the average person can read one with ease. This translation proved

to have some challenges with organizational components, but I learned more about how to break down

the process and identify the key points in both genres. Especially with translating a scientific source, I

faced challenges organizing the results and identifying the key ideas. For the magazine cover, I had to

look at examples and learn the effect of a headline, subheading, and graphics. This helped me properly

format the genre and make justified decisions when choosing graphics or deciding the wording of

headlines.

This translation has taught me how to analyze two different genres and identify the components

that make them effective to their specific audience. Even when initially approaching this reflection, I had

to “systemically recall writing experiences to reframe the current writing situation” (Taczak, 2015, p. 78).

I had to process the choices I made to organize my thoughts accordingly. I had to recall why I made

certain rhetorical choices (Taczak, 2015, p. 78). Reflection is good, especially when one is still

strengthening your skills and learning more about how to write in different genres. Retracing the steps of
a process can help me remember what works and what doesn’t work when approaching a similar writing

in the future. I was able to learn more about the effectiveness of the strategies I used, and the ways in

which I implemented them into my writing process. This will help me use them in future writing

compositions and successfully apply them. I believe the final product effectively shows the information in

the new genre and accomplishes its goal of reaching a new audience.
 References

Bickmore, L. The Information Effect: The Facts, the Figures, the So What? Available from Book Info

Page – Pressbooks Guide (opentextbc.ca)

Giles, S. L. (2010) Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking? In Writing

Spaces: Readings on Writing (Vol. 1, pp. 191-204). Parlor Press

Rosenberg, K. (2011) Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources. In Writing Spaces:

Readings on Writing (Vol. 2, pp. 210-220). Parlor Press

Taczak,K. (2015). Reflection is Critical for Writers’ Development. In Adler-Kassner, L. & Wardle, E.

(Eds.), Naming What We Know: Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies (pp. 78-81). Logan: Utah

State UP

Xie, Z., Chen, F., Li, W. A., Geng, X., Li, C., Meng, X., Feng, Y., Liu, W., & Yu, F. (2017) A review

of sleep disorders and melatonin, Neurological Research, 39:6, 559-565,

https://doi.org/10.1080/01616412.2017.1315864