Plan for WP3: http://cua.mit.edu/ketterle_group/Introduction_to_BEC.htm
The academic text I will be using is an MIT research paper
about Bose Einstein Condensate (BEC), a
man-made substance that could possibly be the coldest stuff in the
universe. The article gives a broad
overview of BEC including its scientific uses, the history behind the theory,
and how to make it. Since there are so many subsections of this article, it
will be easier to translate into the various genres that will be used for the
analysis.
The first idea for a younger audience I have in mind is to
translate the article into a typical humble-brag Facebook post that young
people post after achieving some form of success in thier lives that everyone
needs to know about. The post will be posted by the MIT professor that led the
research team for these BEC discoveries. The post will incorporate conventions
of modern Facebook posting, including smiley emojis, hashtags, location data,
and tagging friends. There will possibly be an attached picture showing off the
final lab results. Comments from various people of various tones will follow,
including other scientists that helped to create these scientific theories that
led to his discoveries. Comments will also be of Facebook commenting
convention, except written by other scientists. Some will be happy, some will
be fake-happy, and some will be passive aggressive: basically typical Facebook
comments commonly seen under a long, self-centered Facebook post. A young
audience should be able to recognize and identify with this idea.
For the older people, I will translate the article into a
recipe from a cookbook or a cooking website. Instead of some sort of food, the
recipe describe in detail on how to create BEC from scratch. The MIT article
has a procedure section with pictures and descriptions that portray the
experiment in meticulous detail. Instead of a research paper genre, it will be
described in a recipe genre. The
abstract will become the descriptive paragraph above the recipe highlighting
the features of the dish. The experiment materials become ingredients and the
experimental procedure will be rewritten in a step by step list utilizing
jargon that is relevant to someone cooking food. There will be pictures within
the recipe and as well as the end with a gallery of the complete
"dish" .
I'm probably going to make a composite photo of each
translated genre piece after writing all of it down as a draft somewhere. This
way, I can also utilize the visual genre conventions. The Facebook post will
have the visual appearance of a real Facebook post and the recipe will look
like it came out of a cookbook. The original text looks difficult to read
because of the lack of formatting and puzzling jargon, but translating the
genre visually should be able to highlight the concept of genre.
I really liked the way you organized your paper. You basically used one paragraph for all of these things: a summary of your article, a thorough explanation of how you will transform it for a younger audience, a thorough explanation of how you will transform it for an older audience, and then miscellaneous thoughts for how you are going to do your WP3. I thought you're ideas were super intelligent and will work out really well for this assignment. I think your last sentence where you say changing the article visually will do a good job at showing how something simple like appearance has a major effect on its' genre. You explain you're two ideas really well with you're writing, and I think the cookbook idea in particular is really clever. I think you're WP3 sounds like its going to be great!
ReplyDeleteTranslating your article into a facebook post so that a younger audience can easily relate to it is such an original and awesome idea. And he cookbook for the older folks too! Basically I think the fact that you used such unconventional genres to appeal to other audiences will definitely work to your advantage. It seems like you know exactly how and what you want to write. However, my only question is how you would write about a comment thread in your WP? Would you just give images as an example you would you just type up the conversation and then define and explain it?
ReplyDeleteThese are some great ideas here! The Facebook post idea for the younger audience is super-nuanced, and it’s really the perfect fit for the target demographic. The comments section is a nice touch too, it would definitely add extra personality and humor to the genre and would definitely make it more relatable to the audience. Also, the BEC recipe idea is really well thought out; it’s pretty unique for such a scientific topic, and the cooking jargon will hopefully help break down the more complex terms. I also think the visual conventions will help both of these ideas stand out. The authenticity of both genres will help make each of them more understandable and relatable to both audiences. Overall, I feel like your ideas have been given a lot of thought, and you’re well on your way. Your biggest challenge is probably going to be the language transformation (especially with the recipe), but it will definitely pay off in the end.
ReplyDeleteWow. The ideas you expressed in your PB3A are extremely interesting. I liked how your picking genres that many people would not associate with a scholarly paper. Your recognition of the conventions that make a Facebook post unique is accurate. I also enjoyed your added information that the person is humbly boasting. For the cookbook idea, I thought it was very clever. I can see the connection between building a substance to cooking. Both have ingredients and steps. Both must be done in a certain environment. Your outside thinking worked and I'm intrigued into what post and what recipe you turn this into.
ReplyDeleteI really like both of your ideas for translating the paper. I also think that your topic is pretty cool. It sounds like you have a solid plan on how your going to do the writing project. It also sounds like you have carefully thought about what the conventions for Facebook posts are. I'm interested in how you will go about writing the recipe from the cookbook since it is such an unconventional idea. I would probably add a picture and measurements for the cookbook. Overall, I think you have two great genres to use for your writing project.
ReplyDelete