Writing Project 2

Genre Translation

From an Informational Article to Illustrated Storyboard

Anosha A. Anwar

Writing 2

Valentina Fahler

May 24, 2020

From an Informational Article to Illustrated Storyboard

Genre translation can allow for a variety of literature pieces to be available to a different

target audience in a new form. By translating one genre to another, we can include other modes

of communication, such as visual, spatial, and gestural to transform a text to be more easily

understood and learned from by the new audience. According to Gagich (2020), the purpose is

“combining each mode to create a clear communicative essay…” (p. 72). That is exactly why

changing the genre to an illustrated storyboard might attract a larger audience. In my opinion,

this maximizes the effectiveness of the article and increases the likelihood of readers retaining

more information as they go because they are invested in the work. Providing useful information

in another format using graphic literature leads to a wider array of individuals to be more

interested in readings provided by teachers and professors. As a result, I think that the target

audience is being expanded to include people who have a harder time digesting, analyzing, and

fully taking in the information presented by entirely linguistic texts. The reflection process at the

end of any type of writing is important towards understanding how effective or successful your

work could be. The main purpose of this reflection is to highlight what aspects of my translation

could be made better and my perspective on how well the translation was done.

The first step of revision is identifying what’s being translated and the primary purposes

of both pieces. This is important because it sheds light on the main aspects of both genres and

how they’re used in each of their academic communities. The primary source that has been

translated is an academic text located online and would be classified under the genre of

informational articles. The expected audience for this piece involves students or teachers looking

for information about categories that classify types of writing or individuals seeking to learn

about genres and their sets/systems. This audience may belong to a community of writers, or a
From an Informational Article to Illustrated Storyboard 4

community of writers in the process of completing a writing course, or a community of

professors teaching the writing course. This article is useful for these communities because it can

be used for research, references, academic papers, teaching material, etc. The purpose of this

piece is to provide new knowledge about genres and how genres act in sets and systems and in

‘habitats’. According to Giles (2010), “Reflection helps you to develop your intentions

(purpose), figure out your relation to your audience, ….” (p. 193). Identifying important facts I

considered during the creation process is important in writing this reflection and understanding

things, such as what the ultimate purpose and general audience of the genre translation is, what

changes should be implemented to appeal to the new purpose and audience, etc. The reasoning

behind selecting the new genre relates to my personal experiences as a high schooler, where long

articles like the primary text bored me. While I read, I paid less and less attention the further I

got and this caused me to retain less information. The genre of the primary article has been

translated into a non-fiction illustrated storyboard, in which pictures are included to strengthen

the written story or information. The general audience for this new piece could be for a wide

range of individuals of different ages. However, an illustrated storyboard would be more popular

for the younger population. Therefore, the target audience for this genre translation is middle

schoolers, high school students, and their teachers. My purpose of doing this genre translation is

to reveal how academic texts, originally written at a higher education level, can be written or

drawn through utilizing a different medium to convey the same information. Additionally, this

can make a difference in how much information individuals will retain. This would effectively

communicate with the intended audience because teachers could use the translated genre for

teaching purposes in an educational community, which is the same purpose as the primary

article, but because of the simple structure and format that is recognizable by most, younger
From an Informational Article to Illustrated Storyboard 5

students would be able to learn from the translated piece more easily than trying to learn from

the primary article. For example, the illustrated storyboard starts with the curiosity of the reader

as the driving purpose behind the storyline. The caption asks the reader a question and relates the

curiosity of a student and the action of young students learning about the topic directly to the

translation. The primary text had a different audience than the translated text because it appeals

to younger individuals. Along with that, students at this level of education are taking English or

writing classes every year and would find an illustrated storyboard about genres useful and

entertaining.

Noting the challenges behind a genre translation is an effective way to highlight in what

ways the genre translation succeeded and failed. In my opinion, you can apply what you learned

through writing classes to your own work and understand how the teachings of other experts can

help you create a well-written piece. It also gives you insight on how similar projects should be

written so that they can perform to the best of their ability in regard to the purpose of the

translated piece. For starters, the biggest challenge of the genre translation was drawing the right

picture to accompany the text so that the panels fit the text and the flow of the storyboard as a

whole. The way that the panels were formatted using a type of panel to panel transition called

subject to subject transitions, which, are “...efficient at moving the story forward while changing

the angles to direct reader attention as needed.” (McCloud, 2006, p.16). In my perspective, the

best way to overcome this challenge was to represent an example or display how the story

character understood the information so the reader could relate. In “Thinking with Pictures'', it is

stated that, choice of image, a key component in drawing a comic, is “...creating pictures to fill

those frames and bring the world of your story to live visually.” (McCloud, 2006, p. 26). Since

my new genre incorporated pictures as well, I had to choose drawings that fit the right situation
From an Informational Article to Illustrated Storyboard 6

to strengthen the text, which is the purpose of creating an illustrated storyboard. This was a

major concern to keep in mind while performing the translation. However, this part of the

translation remained difficult as I found it hard to come up with an illustration that would be able

to do exactly that. My solution to that was to create a generalized image that could be applicable

to either several parts of the caption or to a specific instance mentioned in the caption. The

second biggest challenge was what text to include in the translated piece and what not to include.

Most of the information from the primary text was included into the new genre. Some of the text

included in the secondary text was presented in a different order than in the primary text that

would be relevant to the image and the rest of the freshly written text. The only text from the

primary piece that I left out in translation were bigger examples that I thought were irrelevant,

superfluous, or couldn’t have been represented with a general picture. Not surprisingly, the

content of the text was also a challenge that I had trouble with and, eventually, could not

overcome. In hindsight, after finishing the genre translation, I noticed how as we went deeper

into the article, there was more information or text to cover and it was harder to create an

illustration that would best represent the related caption. I now realize that these two issues

could’ve been solved by simply choosing to omit and stay away from large amounts of

information. The less information, or a more compressed version of the information, would’ve

made it easier to draw a better illustration because it would’ve excluded all ideas that weren’t

necessary towards the entire piece as a whole. Besides that, some of the text was addressed

directly to the reader using ‘you’ to relate the reader directly with the text. Instead, I decided to

incorporate an example character, named Sally W., and use her to present the material. That way,

in most examples, I made sure that the reader would be able to relate themselves to the character

and other people in the same situation or community. Lastly, you would think the language of the
From an Informational Article to Illustrated Storyboard 7

article would serve as a challenge. However, since the target audience is middle or high school

students and teachers, the language, or specific word choice, did not require to be manipulated as

much. Instead, I chose to include the text that provided the information in a simple and

straightforward manner. This text, through easy explanations provided by the author of the

article herself, has been adapted for a younger audience and still gives them an opportunity to

expand their vocabulary and learn new things.

To conclude my thoughts, I think that to successfully convert an “old” genre into a

“new” genre, several things about the body of the text must be changed while keeping in mind

the purpose, the audience, and the content that the text is presented with. Through this project, I

learned that it is definitely hard to change the genre of a written text produced to fit the genre

conventions defined by that specific genre and the discipline it belongs to. One piece of key

information to keep in mind when performing a genre translation is that identifying genre

conventions that are unique to the new/old pieces provide insight on how the translation should

be done. If one is clever enough, those genre conventions unique to the new piece could be made

the star of the translation. Another important aspect of genre translation to keep in mind is the

challenges you are experiencing because that will highlight what key details of the translation

should be worked on and could be improved. Unfortunately, while doing my genre translation, I

failed to perform that task and as a result, I feel that the hurdles, that I thought I already jumped

over, were standing in my path towards a well-translated piece. Overall, I think that the genre

translation adequately translates from an informational article to an illustrated storyboard while

keeping its purpose as an informational article intact. Nevertheless, it is my point of view that my

translation remained unsuccessful because I was not able to bring the entire piece together. My

poor decisions led to an overflow of words in the captions, a very general picture that did not
From an Informational Article to Illustrated Storyboard 8

explain the main idea at work, and a badly formatted genre. Even so, I think that this whole

reflection process was a surefire way to understand the importance of revision. In the end, it led

to a thorough reflection that didn’t try to hide the weak points of the project and an effective

reflection of all the decisions made during the translation.

Works Cited

Bickmore, L. (2016, August 1). GENRE in the WILD: Understanding Genre Within Rhetorical

(Eco)systems. Retrieved from:

https://openenglishatslcc.pressbooks.com/chapter/genre-in-the-wild-understanding-genre-

within-rhetorical-ecosystems/

Gagich, M. (2020, April 1). An Introduction to and Strategies for Multimodal Composing.

Retrieved from:

https://writingspaces.org/node/1712

Giles, S. (2010, May 3). Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You

Thinking? Retrieved from:

https://writingspaces.org/essays/reflective-writing-and-the-revision

McCloud. (2006). Writing with Pictures. Retrieved May 18, 2020, Retrieved from

https://gauchospace.ucsb.edu/courses/mod/resource/view.php?id=3966774