1

Help your Sea Friends!

A Genre Translation

Erika Ley

University of California, Santa Barbara

WRIT 2: Academic Writing

Valentina Fahler

02/26/22
 2

For my WP2 I decided to translate the scientific IMRaD article, Marine Species

Distribution Shifts on the U.S. Northeast Continental Shelf Under Continued Ocean Warming

(Kleisner, 2017) into a childrens’ book. Translating between genres requires knowledge in

understanding the rhetoric, or situation, of each genre. Additionally, it requires skills that utilize

that knowledge to effectively translate the primary information within the new situation. Such

skills can include: identifying the audience for each situation, knowing who you are writing to

allows you to meet their specific needs. Also: the ability to make informed decisions on content

and how it will be presented based on the situation. Finally, using knowledge of translation to

overcome the varying challenges that appear during. Effectively translating information from one

genre to another can be a daunting task, especially when the two genres are within completely

different rhetorical situations. However, I feel that I have successfully translated genres by

identifying the audiences, constructively deciding which information to include or exclude, and

overcoming the varying challenges. Utilizing the skills that I’ve listed and the knowledge I’ve

acquired from our course readings, I have translated an academic article into a childrens’ book.

I choose a childrens’ book as my new genre for a few reasons. First, I thought it would be

fun to create; I wanted to use my freedom within this project to have fun. Further, I chose a

childrens’ book with the intention of inspiring young children. Another reason for my choice is

the importance I believe children hold in changing the planet. I believe younger generations are

essential in changing the future of our planet. We mustwe must encourageinspire young kids to

have passion for change. It is my hope that these kids will grow into educated adults who are

motivated to be the change our planet needs. help our planet and its people: the new generations

are the ones who need to have passion for change. As my intended audience is young children, a

fun and engaging childrens’ book seemed to be the best way to reach them. Thus, with children
 3

as my preferred audience, I decided a colorful book with a child-like tone was the best way to

reach them. This was an important observation, as understanding the audience is essential in a

successful genre translation.

The first step I took in translating these genres was analyzing the audience of each genre.

This allowed me to grasp the rhetorical situation of each, and thus provided a guide to each

genre. It is crucial to first understand each audience of the genres you are translating in order to

successfully execute the translation. This is because the audience is key in understanding the

rhetorical situation of the genre. This first step follows Rosenberg’s (2010) suggestion, as she

points out, “First, consider the audience. When the writer sat down to write your assigned

reading, to whom was he or she implicitly talking?” (p. 253). Understanding the audiences

allowed me to better understand the article I translated. Most importantly, it showed me the

needs to be met within my new audience. The purpose of the scientific article is to further

discuss the effects of Ocean Warming on marine species, specifically their distribution and their

thermal habitats, within the scientific community. Therefore, the audience of the article is other

scientists, and those with an understanding of the language used previous knowledge of the

content presented in the article. The genre I translated it todecided to translate it to, a childrens’

book, would serve the purpose of inspiringencouraging young children to do more to save the

Ocean learn more about the detriment of Ocean warming issue in order to help their sea-creature

friends. Therefore, the audience of my book is young children. Knowledge of the audience

highlights the rhetorical situation at hand. Once the rhetorical situation is known, one can make

decisions on the content included or excluded based on that situation. The audience was essential

in the creation of my new genre, and even in understanding the initial article. This consideration

follows Rosenberg’s (2010) suggestion, as she points out, “First, consider the audience. When
 4

the writer sat down to write your assigned reading, to whom was he or she implicitly talking?”

(p. 253). Understanding the audiences allowed me to better understand the article I translated,

and most importantly, how to best create the new genre of a childrens’ book.

During this translation, I had to decide deciding what information to include versus exclude. is

one of the most important aspects, This is a crucial step in translation, whichwhich requires

knowledge of both genres and their conventions. In order to understand a genre you must

understand its context, as Bickmore (2016) emphasizes, “[...] genres are dependent upon

contexts and situations for their meaning, [...].” You must know the context and situation of each

genre in order to constructively decide what information must be included (and in what way),

and also what cannot. TFirst, to effectively make these decisions, I needed to fully grasp the

primary text I had chosen.; I needed to understand the key arguments being made in order to

effectively represent it within a new genre. Rosenberg (2010) helped in guiding me to the key

ideas of the article: “Usually one paragraph at the beginning of an article, the abstract serves to

encapsulate the main points of the article,” (p. 216). Indeed, the abstract guided me to the main

points of the primary article: the detriment of Ocean warming. With that information, I was able

to successfully decide which information was essential to the primary text, and thus what to

include in the new genre. Once I decided what information was needed to be included in the

translation, I had to decide in what way it must be presented within my new genre.

Another The next salient aspect of integrating information was deciding how to present that

information in ways suitable for the new audience (children). In order to know how to create a

tone suitable for a childrens’ book, I first needed to understand the characteristics and situations

of that genre. Or, as Dirk (2010) highlights: “In other words, knowing what a genre is used for

can help people to accomplish goals [...],” (p. 253). Identifying the conventions of a childrens’
 5

book was key in deciding how to translate the information. In order to be congruent with a child-

like tone, I changed the language of the primary text to be much more simple with easily

digestible terms. For example, I referred to the Ocean as the sea creatures’ home and stated that

it is “getting very warm”, rather than explaining the different animals' thermal habitats. I also

explained that some of their friends cannot handle this heat, rather than describe and how

warming is affecting all of them differently. Thus, I kept the essential concept of the primary

text, except I changed the way in which it was presented in order to satisfy my new audience and

situation. When deciding how to present the primary text’s information, I also realized the dense

amount of important information I had to exclude to cater to my new audience.

Additionally, With an audience of children in mind, I had to exclude much of the information

addressed to educated adults. I had to exclude all of the calculations and statistical models in

order to appeal to children; tI had to realized that these mathematical aspects did not belong in

my new genre. Another aspect from the primary article I decided to leave out was the discussion

of how fishermen are affected by Ocean Warming. Though this was a key point in the primary

article, it did not bode well with the theme of my childrens’ book. This is because, within my

book, I portrayed marine life as the main characters; the sea creatures are the ones asking the

children reading for help. TThough the redistribution and loss of these animals greatly affects the

fishermen catching and selling these animals., However, it does not make sense to include that

information within a book that is from the perspective of the sea creatures. After acquiring

knowledge of each genre’s context, I was able to successfully decide what information must

remain after translation, in what way it must remain, and also what information had to be

excluded. Throughout these decisions and the translation process as a whole, there were various

challenges I had to overcome.

 6

The challenges of this genre translation were various, but with the aid of class readings

and my instructor’s knowledge each challenge was smooth to overcome. Redundant ! The first

challenge I faced was reading the academic article thoroughly and actually understanding its

content. Rosenberg’s Reading Games (2010) helped me greatly in learning to understand the

academic article I chose, as Rosenberg emphasized, “Figuring out the main argument is the key

to reading the text effectively and efficiently. Once you can identify the main argument, you can

determine how much energy to spend on various parts of the reading,” (p. 218). Once I identified

the main points of the academic article I was able to focus my attention on those aspects, thus

reducing the stress I felt when seeing the statistical models and mathematical calculations that I

could not comprehend. This is because I realized I did not need to understand them in order to

understand the key arguments. Another challenge I faced during this project was One of the most

prevalent challenges I faced was the writers’ block I experienced when trying to create my story.

I kept experiencing a block when it came to creating an interesting storyline suitable for kids

from the primary article’s information. I struggled integrating dark scientific knowledge (the

failing health of marine life) into a playful childrens’ story. Then, I noticed I was only picturing

the entire final product when attempting just the beginning. Then, I realized I needed to stop

trying to form a final product on each first try, I needed to simply get my thoughts out. Giles

(2010) helped me to realize this, that I needed to be messy in those beginning stages: “[...]

freewriting works to generate ideas, which often won’t come out nicely organized,” (p. 196).

Once I began free-writing, my sentences initially became longer and messier, but these rough

sentences allowed me to see what was good and what needed change. This multi-stepThis multi-

ple step multi-step revisional process of free-writing and finalizing actually took less time, and

was much easier thaneasier, than attempting a final product sentence right away. Again, this was
 7

made clear to me by Giles (2010): “In a nutshell, it [revision] helps you develop more insight

into and control over composing and revising processes,” (p. 193). I felt an immense sense of

control using a revisional process rather than looking for immediate finality.

Finally, the The otherlast prevailing challenge I faced was simplifying the dense, academic

information within the primary article to be suitable for children to read. The first step in

overcoming this was identifying the characteristics of the new genre and using them as a guide.

As Bickmore (2016) writes, one must first identify the genre a certain situation calls for and then

use that to form a written response to that genre’s situation. Once I had identified the

situation,situatio,n of a childrens’ book it was much easier as I could to use that as a guide. That

is, a guide on how to translate the academic information in a way that satisfies the new situation.

OIt was difficult deciding what to leave out when simplifying the information, but once I had a

clear and concise understanding of my new genre’s situation, knowing how to simplify the

informationit became a smoother transition. I was able to follow the conventions of a childrens’

book as a guide. Though these challenges were initially disconcerting, the knowledge I gained

from our class readings helped me get through all of them.

Through the utilization of the skills and knowledge I’ve gained from class readings and

lectures, I was able to translate an academic article into a childrens’ book. In my experience, the

most essential skills were understanding the audiences, using knowledge to make effective

decisions on content, and being able to overcome the challenges involved. By identifying and

analyzing the two genres’ audiences, making decisions on the inclusion or exclusion of content,

and overcoming challenges during translation, I have successfully translated an academic article

into a childrens’ book. This translation required knowledge that the class readings helped me to

understand. TIn short, this project has been a learning experience where I have developed the
 8

skills to successfully translate information from one genre into another. Though these skills

were acquired just before this translation, the implementation of them allowed me to truly absorb

them. This translation has been a skill strengthening experience that has expanded my knowledge

of rhetoric and genre.

Works Cited
 9

Bickmore, L. (2016). Genre in the Wild: Understanding Genre Within Rhetorical

(Eco)Systems. In Open English @ SLCC. essay, Pressbooks.

Dirk, K. (2010). Navigating Genres. In Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing (Vol. 1).

essay, Parlor Press.

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

Thinking? In Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing (Vol. 1). essay, Parlor Press.

Kleisner, K. M., Fogarty, M. J., McGee, S., Hare, J. A., Moret, S., Perretti, C. T., & Saba,

V. S. (2017). Marine Species Distribution shifts on the U.S. northeast continental

shelf under continued ocean warming. Progress in Oceanography, 153, 24–36.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2017.04.001

Rosenberg, K. (2010). Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources. In

Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing (Vol. 2). essay, Parlor Press.