WRITING PROJECT 2: GENRE TRANSLATION

Writing Project 2: Genre Translation

Valentina Fahler

Writing 2

Cynthia Ordaz

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Setting: Adele is frantically pacing in h'r cubiculo, and hast been f'r hours in the basement of h'r

home which h'r family hast abandoneth. The lady is high lone. The lady hast been restless with

h'r crippling anxiety and the feareth yond the lady shall nev'r findeth success in h'r life. So the

lady speaks to h'rself in desires of finding a cureth f'r h'r continuous failures

Adele: Wherefore doth I at each moment tryeth so hard and nev'r receiveth t right? Mine own

ev'ry first tryeth is absolute the horror ev'rytime; mine own ev'ry first attempteth is nev'r how I

wisheth t wast! Wherefore can't I delib'rate efficiently and bethink of something outstanding on

the first tryeth? Ev'ry most wondrous flawless human being, ev'ry successful person I behold up

to might not but waketh up ev'ry morning getting ev'rything right on the first attempteth. I

wanteth to diveth into something humour undefeatable and conqu'r ev'ry task in front of me with

ease and without failure! T nev'r w'rks out yond way. Wherefore can’t yond beest me?

Wherefore doth I at each moment has't shitty first tries? Wherefore?

Bethinking about t, wherefore? Not a single one of mine own attempts has't been spectacular;

valorous enough to beest did recognized. Aft'r mine own ev'ry shitty first attempteth I am a

failure and giveth up! Howev'r, am I expecting too much? Is this idea yond people who is't so

successful p'rfect on the first tryeth just ​unreal​? A figure? Wherefore has't I been so hard on

myself? Mine own most successful cousins doth not giveth up aft'r ev'ry did fail first attempteth.

It’s not about how most wondrous thee doth on the first tryeth but what is done to maketh up for

the faulty rough drafeth. Not at each moment doth mine own most wondrous cousins waketh up

humour unconquerable; but those gents too maketh mistakes, those gents too has't to tryeth ov'r

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and ov'r to reacheth what oth'rs admireth. Sure, haply some of these people yond most admireth

doth has't these moments where those gents art so p'rfect without trials. Those people, howev'r,

aren’t the most admired. Who is't can beest so p'rfect, without having people envious of those

folk? Most art m're drawn to oth'rs who art just as imperfect as those folk!

I has't to maketh the most of what mine own shitty first attempts bringeth me. The journey of

making attempteth aft'r attempteth is liketh parenting; raising an issue. Thy first attempteth shall

beest the child-like stage of life, t is careless, unrevised, and in definite needeth of becoming a

bett'r version of itself, in needeth to groweth. This first attempteth, liketh an issue shall runneth

wild letting loose. Thee nev'r knoweth what most wondrous spectacular things shall cometh from

what the issue shall bringeth f'rth. The attempts yond followeth art what leadeth to maketh a

careless yet undoubtedly and surprising most wondrous issue into a cunning adult and wise

mentor.

Giving up timeth and timeth again aft'r mine own ev'ry failure is what did hold me backeth from

fulfilling mine own aspiring dreams to becometh m're f'r myself. Even the most wealthy,

famous, wondrous people doth not stand ho trying aft'r their ev'ry faulty tryeth. Wherefore has't

I, then, been giving ev'rything up and not getting backeth up to tryeth again. Oh has't I cometh to

a revelation! Only the children yond maketh mistakes blossom into curious teenag'rs, cunning

young adults and receiveth wis'r from th're. Without these mistakes, these shitty first tries 'r

failures th're shall nev'r beest something bett'r yond cometh out of t. In the endeth, these firsts

giveth subdued answ’rs. These first alloweth f'r growth f'r something better. Yond outstanding

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p'rson I behold up to struggles just as I doth. I has't to rememb'r yond coequal the most flawless

people ('r how those gents might appeareth) has't shitty first tries too.

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Analysis

I have learned that genre is a means of communication. Genre can be seen as a recurring

situation or “as a tool to help people to get things done” (Dirk, 2010, p. 251), manifesting itself

in almost endless forms such as written language, media, artwork, music and more. There are a

number of conventions used within even just one form of genre. In writing alone, there are

diverse conventions that can be used to convey the same message in completely different ways

including audience, syntax, and how or if evidence is incorporated. Having an understanding of

the purpose is important to consider when translating from one genre to another. Changing

conventions of a genre while the purpose remains the same, allows for translation to be

conquered. Some components may be lost in genre translation as a result of the primary audience

being changed, structure and conventions being transformed, which allows for a new genre to

emerge. Nonetheless, it is important for the purpose to stay in place so the same message gets

across to the readers. The chapter on “Shitty First Drafts” from ​Bird by Bird: Some Instructions

on Writing and Life​ by Anne Lamott, is essentially a chapter on how to enhance writing and how

“shitty” first drafts are a key establishment for many notable papers. I decided to translate this

informative article on writing augmentation to an emotion-filled Shakespeare inspired soliloquy,

keeping the purpose of my primary source in mind.

Audience is a convention of genre that every text has and when determined can aid in

finding the purpose of why each text was written. When choosing my primary source to use for

my translation, I looked through the class readings and the main genre convention I sought for

was the audience. The reader was important for me to look out for because through the audience

“we can start to see how specific choices that writers make result in specific actions on the part

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of readers” (Dirk, 2010, p. 254). In essence, I looked for the audience in my primary source

because knowing the audience will help me better understand the choices the writer made in her

essay. In the primary source, Lamott’s purpose was to speak towards learning writers or writers

who wish to amplify their writing. The text emphasized the idea of revision and debunked the

misconception that good writers always write amazingly on their first attempts. In my soliloquy,

the speaker is my primary source’s ​audience a​ nd my primary source’s ​speaker​. The character in

the soliloquy is someone who is struggling with this idea that they cannot achieve perfection the

“first” time and comes to a realization of what the speaker in my primary source speaks on-- the

idea that one should not give up after lack of success. Where the reader in my primary source is

limited to writers or students, the soliloquy broadens the audience because not only does the

character in the soliloquy talk about the “firsts” in written papers but the general “firsts”-- the

“firsts” of life in its entirety. The literal audience of soliloquies are themselves, as the speaker

speaks only towards themselves. In reality, the readers will be people who study or enjoy

english, literature or poetry as a soliloquy is often a part of a play.

Most texts have any sort of rhetoric to them and in some cases, the rhetoric in two

different genres can be similar. I found that this chapter of my primary source appealed to the

emotion; the writer sympathized and comforted the readers. I thought of the obstacles the

audience might have been facing and how the writer tried to make the audience realize that they

are not alone in their struggles. This is why I chose to write a soliloquy. In the soliloquy, the

speaker was vocalizing the conflicts of the audience from the chapter, in the beginning frustrated

with her incapabilities to do amazing at her firsts in life and how she continuously was a failure.

The speaker makes this evident in the very first sentence when she states, “Wherefore doth I at

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each moment tryeth so hard and nev'r receiveth t right?”. Being the first problem she arises, it

shows that this is her main predicament. The message of the chapter was essentially to not give

up after a failed first attempt because even the greatest writers suffer from poorly done first

drafts. In my attempt to communicate this message, I felt a soliloquy fit perfectly because the

chapter seemed very inspiring and the rhetoric of the chapter appealed to sympathize and guide

the audience to success. On a similar note, the speaker in the soliloquy is a woman who is

struggling with her failures. Most can relate to the character and what Lamott claimed to her

audience in the chapter was exactly the main character’s revelation. The character, like Lamott,

guided herself to her realization which was exactly what Lamott claimed in her text.

In order to successfully manage this translation, I also took into consideration some

advice on writing multimodal texts from Melanie Gagich’s article, “An Introduction to and

Strategies for Multimodal Composing.” When brainstorming my ideas, I had to take a step back

and consider “​the message,”​ “​the author,” “the medium,” “the genre,” ​and​ “the audience”

(Gagich, 2020, p. 75 ) and understand some of these components to create a translation of my

primary text to a completely new genre. I also wanted my text to be multimodal to illustrate my

text and make it unique from the original. The genre of my primary source was an informative

essay and the audience is students who hope to enhance their writing abilities. Once I pinpointed

the genre and audience, I thought of ways I could make them my own while keeping the message

so that the ideas from my primary text do not get lost in my translation. The main idea of my

primary text was to not stop trying after first tries and that even very successful people have poor

first attempts. Therefore, I implemented those ideas into my soliloquy but broadened them to a

different audience. What I struggled with was finding out which mode I wanted to add to my text

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and how I will implement the new mode. Ideally, my soliloquy would have been performed, but

it is simply written which takes away from the aural mode I would have wished to execute.

Instead, I overcame this conflict by adding a setting to my text. My setting states, “Adele is

frantically pacing in h'r cubiculo, and hast been f'r hours in the basement of h'r home which h'r

family hast abandoneth…The lady hast been restless with h'r crippling anxiety and the feareth

yond the lady shall nev'r findeth success in h'r life.” I added the setting in order to add more

visuals to my text through imagery of the situation the character is in and the character’s state of

mind. The visuals not only added to a further understanding of my text but added a component

that is often found in plays in soliloquies.When adding a new mode to my translation, it was

important for me to keep in mind what aspects should be considered when writing a soliloquy

and executing them correctly.

On my road for understanding genre, participating in my own genre translation helped me

understand how different genre conventions work. In order to carry out the genre translation,

there were several things I had to consider from the primary source and the new text that I hoped

to undertake. I had to determine the purpose, audience, and the genre conventions of both my

primary source and my genre translation. After determining these pieces I was able to translate

ideas from one genre to a completely new genre. Of course, ideas were lost and some

conventions were added but it gave me more knowledge about why different conventions are

used for different genres. The genre conventions used for each text are specific for that genre and

its distinct purpose. Executing my own genre translation helped me realize why each convention

is used and how.

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Works Cited

Dirk, K., (2010). Navigating Genres. Creative Commons License. Retrieved from:

https://gauchospace.ucsb.edu/courses/pluginfile.php/6162226/mod_resource/content/1/dir

k--navigating-genres.pdf

Gagich, M., (2020). An Introduction to and Strategies for Multimodal Composing. Retrieved

from:

https://gauchospace.ucsb.edu/courses/pluginfile.php/8129148/mod_resource/content/1/Int

ro%20to%20multimodal%20composing.pdf

Lamott, A., (1994). Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. New York: Pantheon.

Retrieved from:

https://gauchospace.ucsb.edu/courses/pluginfile.php/8075123/mod_resource/content/1/La

mott__Shitty%20First%20Drafts%20OK%20VERSION.pdf