Sie sind auf Seite 1von 6

Jauch 1

Devyn Jauch
Matt Wilson
Writing 2
Writing Project 3: Translation
The purpose of an academic article is to communicate ideas to a specific scholarly
audience. Yet, it is possible to still communicate the purpose of academic articles to a different
audience, simply by changing the genre in which the information is written. In this case, I have
taken an academic article, Syringe Sociology by Nicole Vitellone published in the British Journal
of Sociology, and translating it into a short story. The article is focused on the sociological use of
the syringe in drug use as a form of community. I also established that another message from the
article was centered on the reasons why people use a syringe as a vessel for drugs, thus my short
story focuses on these reasons, as well as the community that can be formed through the
injecting of drugs. Turning the article into a story allows the message to reach a broader
audience, one composed of younger people, people who are more likely to be exposed to the
world of drugs than those in a scholarly community. In order to reach this audience and translate
the article, I had to look closely at both the conventions of short stories and academic articles.
Throughout previous writing projects, I established the conventions of academic articles to be
advanced language, use of evidence and focused ideas and topics. In a short story, these
conventions do not exist. Statements made in stories do not necessarily have to be factual and the
language depends on the characters. In order to make a successful translation one that would
communicate the message of an academic article to a completely new audience I had to ignore
the conventions of academia, while still incorporating the proper information into a work of
fiction.

Jauch 2
The first step I took in translating the article was identifying the main points and figuring
out how to include those points into the characters and plot of my short story. For example, in
Syringe Sociology, I found that Vitellones main point was to identify how and why the syringe
becomes a social symbol in the drug community. Because of this, I built the story around a girl in
rehab reflecting on her drug family and how specific members came to rely not only on the
drug, but on the meaning behind the syringe. To highlight the how I projected a few of the main
reasons Vitellone mentioned in her article onto my character. The main character embodies the
use of drugs as a way to escape a past trauma, as well as a way to form a new family. Another
character, James, who died before the story took place, used drugs as a form of defiance. Other
reasons for drug use were mentioned in the story through abstract characters, such as the family
leaders who use for control or the outsiders who use based off an addiction.
Another thing I needed to pay attention to was the language used in the article versus the
language used in a story. Academic language is very advanced and can confuse a reader who is
unfamiliar with the specific vocabulary. The article is direct in its statements but sophisticated in
its word choice; a short story is actually the opposite. The diction should not be above the level
of a high school graduate, in other words, it must be comprehendible by a large audience.
However, a short story can include metaphors and other forms of figurative language, such as a
quiet that rang about the room. On top of this, short stories, usually creative works of fiction, do
not have to adhere to proper grammar conventions. In my story, there are short, incomplete
sentences, improper comma placements and other grammar mistakes that I purposely
incorporated. I made these mistakes for two reasons: One, to show how grammar is necessary in
some writing genres but not in others, and two, because my story is told through the mind of the
main character, a young, under educated heroin addict. The lack of advanced vocabulary along

Jauch 3
with the poor grammar, fit with the overall story, as it is written in a very journalistic style, and
people do not always think in proper grammar. The grammar and language of the story seems
inferior to that of an academic article. However, this inferiority feeds into the overall tone needed
in the story to properly communicate the message.
The tone is another important distinction between the story and the article. The tone of
the story is created through the main characters dialect. I had her use words such as wanna and
pretty messed up place to show her lack of education. She also spoke directly to the readers
through lines like Uncomfortable yet? This way of speaking sets an informal vibe over the
story, but the content (drugs, sexual abuse, etc.) emphasizes the significance of the message. But
this communication also separates the genre of short stories and academic articles. In Vitellones
article, she states that through research, sociologists and psychologists have established a
psychological definition of needle conditioning as a habit by conditioning, (Vitellone, 374).
This statement is simply stating how conditioning impacts a habit, but the vocabulary and tone
are still very structures and academic. In my story, I use this same idea, however, it is conveyed
differently. The main character admits to the conditioning aspects of the drug, but explains it as
the object had become embedded in my brain, in my body and in my soul, to mean so much
more than a high, The difference in word choice, diction and tone separates the two genres from
one that is professional and one that is not, in order to share the meaning of the topic to a wider
range of people.
In order to translate the article, I had to read it carefully. I used strategies from Mike
Bunns article How to Read like a Writer in order to understand the choices Vitellone made in her
article and try to apply these choices into the short story. This article helped me to be sure to
identify the purpose of the original article as well as the intended audience (Bunn, 79). These

Jauch 4
specific strategies and questions allowed me to include the main points of the article into my
story. Another reading I used was Scott McClouds Writing with Pictures. Though this particular
article was about writing comics, it can be applied to other forms of creative writing as well.
McCloud states that writers want two things from their audience: to understand what we have to
tell them andto care enough to stick around until were done, (McCloud, 8). I used this advice
when formulating the back story of my main character. I made her life begin in a way that many
readers would be able to relate to: a suburban neighborhood with a happy family. This builds a
connection between the character and the reader. The reader is then forced to care about what
happens to the little daughter a word choice used to pull at the heartstrings of the readers
especially once they find out about the abuse she was subjected to. In order to make the readers
understand what is happening within the story, I used simple language and wrote in a run-on,
journal style, which is very similar to how most people communicate to themselves within their
own head. Thus, reading the story became more like listening to a personal conversation than
reading a made-up story.
Different genres of writing have their own unique conventions that make them fit into
their specific communities. Sometimes when writing within a genre, it is necessary to break the
conventions to communicate your purpose to your desired audience. However, when your
desired audience is completely different from the genres original community, it is necessary to
change the genre. In order to do this, the main ideas of the original genre must stay the same, but
it is the conventions of the genre that change. In my genre translation, I took an academic article
by Nicole Vitellone about the sociology of the syringe in drug use and turned the message into a
short story about a heroin addict in rehab. I did this in order to connect the message of the article
to a larger, less scholarly, audience, likely one who the message will have more of an impact on.

Jauch 5
And this is why it is important to do translations: it spreads the word. The audience of a certain
genre may not always be enough to convey the message to. The audience is central to the
decisions and conventions of any piece of writing. And sometimes, in order to communicate to a
more diverse audience, a writer must translate the information from one genre to the next.

Jauch 6
Works Cited
Bunn, Mike. How to Read Like a Writer. Writing 2. SBprinter. 38-53. 2015
McCloud, Scott. Writing With Pictures. Writing 2. SBprinter. 131-155. 2015
Vitellone, Nicole. Syringe Sociology. British Journal of Sociology.

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen