Linh Nguyen

WRITING 2
02/01/23

Translating An Academic Article to A Personal Letter:

A Writing Reflection

The original article, “Next-Generation Sequencing in the Clinic: Promises and

Challenges” by Jiekun Xuan (Xuan, et al. 2013) is a scholarly article summarizing next

generation sequencing (NGS) techniques. The article describes the future of genetic sequencing

technology. The author, Jiekun Xuan, is a P.h.D associated with the School of Pharmacy at Fudan

University in China and the U.S National Center for Toxicological Research. The article was

difficult to read since its intended audience is likely Xuan’s colleagues and peers with scientific

backgrounds. The thesis, located in both the abstract and introduction, is to discuss NGS

(next-generation sequencing). The article states it will " provide a brief overview of the

characteristics, strengths and limitations of current NGS platforms", "discuss the major

applications of NGS technologies", and "discuss the bioinformatics tools and challenges in NGS

data analysis". (Xuan, et al. 2013)

When searching for example letters to better understand the genre, I came across a letter

from Ida B. Wells to Mrs. Ridley (Wells 1894). The letter, simply titled “letter” was the basis of

my understanding of the genre. It was basically my template for what I was trying to write and I

tried to match the layout of it.

Another letter that helped me format my translation was one from Alfred C. Kinsey and

was addressed to a Dr. R.L. Dickinson (Kinsey 1984). This letter matched what I was intending

to convey since its contents are about a specific topic.I found that the way Kinsey conveyed his

request for book donations helped me structure my own letter.

My final reference letter was a bit of a random one. The sender was Gerald L.K. Smith, a

politician in the 1930s and a known anti-semite and white supremecist (Smith n.d). While of

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course the historical context of the letter is not that important to the genre, I felt it worth

mentioning since his views are significantly present in the letter. That being said, it did help me

with tone since, as a politician, his writing would be formal but still display his closeness with

the recipient.

When I analyzed the letter genre examples as well as the academic article genre, I

thought back to Dirk’s “Navigating Genres”. (Dirk 2020) In his writing, he lists four steps to

writing in certain genres. His first step is to identify my own goal (Dirk 2020). In my letter, I am

trying to tell someone about an interesting topic. Next I must learn about the situation including

identifying my audience although I struggled with that greatly. I also needed to understand the

constraints of the genre like the length. The third step was to find examples which I did

previously. And the final step was to ask questions which I tried to remind myself to do as I was

writing.

While deciding where to begin with my letter, I thought back to the first and second order

writing tips of Elbow (Elbow, 1986). Normally one would start with first order writing or

freewriting. However in my case, since I already had a pre-set format based on the example

letters, I would draw something of a simple outline. Firstly, the date and the name of the recipient

followed by a short introduction to explain why I might be sending the letter. Then I left a space

for a quick synopsis of the various sections of the original article. I ended the letter with a

closing and a few kind words to the recipient and my own name. I then went back in to fill in the

body of the outline.

I’m not actually sure whether choosing a personal/formal letter was a good genre to

translate the source material into. I mainly chose it because I wanted to write in a genre where I

wouldn’t need to fully understand all of the miniscule details and complexities of the original

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article. I do think that this specific genre translation could be a good way to study things like

scholarly articles. People often recommend that you try to summarize and explain learned

information as if you were speaking to a child, that way you can really think about the subject

matter. I think this is a good example of that and by doing so, it was easier to understand the

original article.

The original audience of the article was likely Xuan’s colleagues and peers. Usually,

scientific journals are meant to share one’s data with others in their field. In Xuan’s case, the

complex vocabulary and lack of explanation on certain topics confirmed that their audience was

those with a scientific background (Xuan, et al. 2013). In my own translation, I attempted to

address my letter to my writing teacher. I expect that this person has little to no background

knowledge of any of the scientific processes and terminology referenced in the original article. I

did, however, set up a scenario in which my teacher would be interested in the topic just so I

have a reason to write this letter to them.

I think that, by translating the article into a letter genre, I was able to simplify the

information so that it can be better understood by a larger audience (even though it is addressed

to one person). I chose this genre because, although there is a set format and language to it, there

is no real limitation on the information I can discuss. I also think that, since letters are usually

only about a page long, I would be able to really pick out the key points of the original article.

Firstly, I took notes on the original article. Luckily for me, it was broken up into clear

sections which directly translated to paragraphs in my letter. After taking notes, I rewrote all of

the key details into a form that I could read without being super confused by any of the

terminology or concepts. However, in doing so, I lost a lot of information. In fact, there is barely

any scientific data or vocabulary in the letter.

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 One of the biggest challenges I faced was translating the incredibly complicated concepts

of the article into very simple language. Firstly, some of the information was already hard for me

to understand and took a while to rewrite. Simplifying this information was incredibly difficult

and the only way I was able to do it was to remove some details that might be key to a scientific

researcher.

I also struggled with the tone of the letter. Although I had initially intended to address the

letter to my friend, I felt that that would make it far too informal and I would basically be unable

to convey any significant information since my friends and I don’t communicate this way in the

first place. So, by changing the recipient of the letter, I was able to use more formal language

without sounding odd. I also had issues making the body of the letter sound like a letter since a

large part of it is just conveying the simplified scientific information from the article.

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References

Dirk, Kerry. “Navigating Genres.” Essay. In Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing 1, Vol. 1.
Anderson, SC: Parlor Press, 2020.

Elbow, Peter. “Teaching Two Kinds of Thinking by Teaching Writing.” Chapter. In Embracing
Contraries: Explorations in Learning and Teaching. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.

Kinsey, Alfred C. Alfred C. Kinsey to R.L. Dickinson, January 20,1948. New York City, New
York. In Alexander Street Press.
https://search.alexanderstreet.com/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cbibliographic_details%7C
2775333?utm_campaign=AlexanderStreet&utm_medium=MARC&utm_source=aspresolver

Smith, Gerald L. K. Gerald L.K Smith to A good friend. “A Personal Letter from Gerald L.K.
Smith.” Los Angeles, California, n.d. In Alexander Street Press. Accessed January 31, 2023.
https://search.alexanderstreet.com/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cbibliographic_details%7C
4655690?utm_campaign=AlexanderStreet&utm_medium=MARC&utm_source=aspresolver

Wells, Ida B. Ida B. Wells to Mrs. Ridley, May 30, 1894. London.
In Alexander Street Press.
https://search.alexanderstreet.com/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cbibliographic_details%7C
2663397?utm_campaign=AlexanderStreet&utm_medium=MARC&utm_source=aspresolver

Xuan, Jiekun, Ying Yu, Tao Qing, Lei Guo, and Leming Shi. “Next-Generation Sequencing in
the Clinic: Promises and Challenges.” Cancer Letters 340, no. 2 (2013): 284–95.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.canlet.2012.11.025.