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Dear Ruby,
I had the most wonderful night. It started out just dreadful though! First, we
get a letter from the prince about a welcome home ball that we are all
invited to. This was good news, and my stepmother even said I could attend
(that was even better news). Then, Stepmother gives me a long list of chores
that I must finish in order to go to the ball. Ruby, I went look for something to
wear and I found one of mothers old dresses, so I worked all day to finish the
chores. When I finished them all, Gus, Jaq, and Bruno surprised me by adding
the most beautiful details to my mothers old dress (the elegant pink one)! It
dress looked magnificent and I was delighted to go to the ball. When I came
down the stairs Anastasia and Drizella tore my dress apart. It upset me
terribly. I ran outside and this woman appeared and said she was my fairy
godmother! She waved her wand and turned a pumpkin into a carriage. She
also gave me a new dress and sparkling glass slippers. Fairy godmother gave
me a warning about the spell; it would wear off at the stroke of midnight.
Ruby, I went to the ball and danced with the Prince! He was just lovely and
so handsome. I lost the time and ran off because of the spell and lost one of
my slippers. I never gave him my name; how I wish he finds me. I do hope to
see you soon.
Yours truly,
Cinderella

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Amy Scarbrough
Emm Simpson
Writing 2- 9am
17 November 2015
Metacognitive Reflection
The primary source I will be translating is Disneys Cinderella made in 1950. The genre
of this film could be disputed as a couple of different things. It could be categorized as a fairytale
or a childrens film. The audience is clearly young children. Kids watching the movie could be
any age and any gender, but the intended audience is elementary school girls. Disney makes the
assumed audience clear in the simple word choice and story line. It is to provide enjoyment and
evoke emotions in the audience watching it whether that is a five-year-old girl, her parents, or
her babysitter being forced to watch it for the fifth time in a row. The movies purpose is to
entertain young children and let them see magic, happiness and romance. Disneys Cinderella
puts a fun spin on the old European folktale and allows young girls to see romance in an innocent
way. The conventions of a childrens fairy tale are use of magic, a romantic love interest, and
someone evil or mean. All of the traditional conventions are seen in the movie.
The genre I will be converting it to will be a letter from Cinderella herself to her best
friend, recounting the night and her feelings towards the situation. Letters are sometimes hand
written with casual word choice and use of slang. They also tend to focus on the persons
emotions, summarizing an event, or simply to catch up with an old friend. Most of the time
letters are for the person it is addressed to, however they can be addressed to a group of people
like a family. Letters can be very personal and sincere or they can be lighthearted and easy going.
The purpose of letter are to allow the person whose writing it to share a part of their life or
connect to someone on a personal level if they cannot be seen in person. It is a way to connect

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with others. The genre is open to many formats and lengths because it is personal and different
from person to person.
Going from a movie describing the whole story to a letter from Cinderellas point of view
about the night involved making choices in what to add and describe in the letter. I added
information from the original movie by recounting what happened in the letter. For instance I
included the names of the characters and referenced them as Cinderella would. I only wrote
about the events that occurred until Cinderella lost her shoe and went home. I also chose not to
add much detail on the ball itself because the important part was that she lost track of time and
her shoe. Because it is a letter to her best friend, I did not want to include the happily ever
after. I assumed that her best friend would be at the wedding. Moreover, I assumed that they
would be in touch fairly regularly, which means that Cinderella could have written this letter the
same night after the events unfolded. I chose to include all of the details leading up to the ball
except the classic bibbidi-bobbidi-boo phrase because I decided that Cinderella probably
would not have included that in a letter to her best friend due to the fact that the franchise made
the phrase popular, not Cinderella. Trying to keep the feeling of the original, I did not add
anything except for Cinderellas best friend.
Translating the movie to a letter involved some choices that had to be made like keeping
the tone of the 1950s movie or putting a unique modern view on the story. The main challenges
of the letters were deciding her best friends name, what tone I wanted the letter to have, and the
time setting of the letter. I overcame these decisions by using first order thinking to write and just
go with what came naturally (Elbow). Personally, I am not extremely creative so, writing using
the original ideas and sticking to the script came more naturally. The name for her best friend
was the toughest decision because I wanted to make it seem princess-like and make sense in the

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time period. Another challenging aspect of the translation was deciding if I should hand write the
letter, or type it and if so, in what font. Many letters are handwritten, but for legibility and
accurate representation of what Cinderellas handwriting might have been, I decided to type it in
a handwriting font. I also had to choose how Cinderella felt about the night and her tone when
writing to her best friend. Based off of how she felt in the movie during and after the ball, I tried
to recreate that tone in the letter.
My primary source, the 1950 version of Disneys Cinderella, is one of many versions of
the fairytale. There are stories from different countries, different movies and spin offs of the
original, and modern books with the story. I learned that the movie shows many of the traditional
conventions of a fairytale; magic, the idea of love, and royalty are common among fairytales.
Moreover, I learned that Cinderella could be considered very outdated. Because of this I could
have changed the letter to be a from a feminist Cinderellas point of view, or a young modern
Cinderellas point. From writing a letter, I learned that they vary in length and personality. I
knew some of the conventions, like to address and conclude the letter with a header and closing.
Because letters are very personal, there is a lot of free will and creativity involved. I learned that
with the letter from Cinderella I have to change the point of view from third person, like the
movie, to a first person point of view.
I especially had to focus on my diction and tone. Keeping the more old fashioned
language in mind was difficult, but necessary to keep the authenticity of the piece. If I had used
modern slang, the letter would not have been believable. Not only was word choice important,
but syntax was too. In the 50s, sentence structure was simple, whereas now it is more complex
and lengthy. Also the fact that its audience is children contributes to why the syntax is simple. I
kept in mind Boyds point that genre leads to a specific diction and tone. The tone needed to be

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in line with the genre and the character. The characters tone changes throughout the movie, so it
needed to change throughout the letter. In order to translate the movie to a letter I also had to
keep in mind the age of Cinderella and her feelings toward her family and the prince. I chose the
movie because of this reason. The movie shows more of Cinderellas emotions than the book,
which helps characterize her speech and tone in the letter.
Overall, translating Disneys 1950 version of Cinderella to a letter from Cinderella to her
best friend about the night was interesting and taught me about conventions of genres. While
writing the letter, I had to keep in mind the conventions of a letter and the fact that I would be
analyzing it later. The choices I had to make were important to the flow, consistency and
accuracy of the letter. I also had to make sure I analyzed the movie accurately in order to make
the letter authentic. I struggled with some of the decisions I had to make when writing the letter,
but once a decision was made it allowed me to write more easily. Analyzing something that I had
to create made me focus and make choices that I normally do not have to make.

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Bibliography
Boyd, Janet. "Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking)." Writing Spaces 2 (2011): n. pag. Print.
Cinderella. Dir. Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske. Walt Disney. 1950.
DVD.
Elbow, Peter. Embracing Contraries: Explorations in Learning and Teaching. New York: Oxford
U Press. 1986.