Lim 1

Alexander Lim

Jennifer Johnson

Writing 2 Project 3

24th May 2017

Found in Translation

If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more

intelligent, read them more fairy tales (Albert Einstein).

Fairy tales and childrens stories play a huge role in our lives and can be found all

over the world in all forms. We are mostly exposed to these stories at the tender ages of

around four to seven, and although it may not seem like it, they have a huge impact on our

view of the world. While we are at that age, our minds are still extremely malleable as we

have yet to form the biases that we frequently develop as we approach adulthood. Simply put,

this means that we believe most of what we are told. Take the story of the Three Little Pigs,

for example; although the moral of the story may be that hard work pays off, we are also

biasedly left thinking that the Wolf, for lack of better words, is Big and Bad. I have

decided to do a translation of this well-known story and turn it into an objective newspaper

article that will cover an ongoing investigation regarding the destruction of the Pigs

property. The intent of this article was to provide a different perspective that caters to a

different audience entirely. Through this paper, I will analyze the choices made during the

translation of the childrens story and examine how and why there were used to effectively

translate between the two genres.

First, I will analyze the purpose and audience behind the piece. By doing so, one will

be able to understand the force that drives the choices made in other aspects of the piece. This

idea is also conveyed in Navigating Genres where Drik suggests that we should learn as

much as [we] can about the situation for which [we] are writing. What is [our] purpose? Who
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is [our] audience? (Dirk 13). The audience that I chose for the piece are the educated adults

that live in the community where the events take place. The main difference between the two

audiences is the age and maturity level, and this was carefully chosen for a reason. A purpose

of a childrens book is education, and it achieves this by using the moral of the story to teach

children a life lesson. In this case, it is achieved by the one-sided narrative which portrays the

Wolf as bad and the Pigs as good. My decision to write an objective newspaper article was

driven by the fact that the original piece was one-sided. I wanted to allow my audience to see

the whole story through the inclusion of facts and evidence instead of from a biased point of

view. A newspaper article is well known for using logos, which is commonly defined as

argument from reason, and it usually appeals to an audiences intellectual side (Carroll 9),

and ethos which refers to the credibility of the rhetorwhich can be a person or an

organization (Carroll 11). I believed that with my intended audiences maturity and intellect

they would be able to come to an informed decision based on the facts and evidence

provided. After choosing my target audience, I had to determine what information I should

present to them. During this phase of the translation I was presented with a few challenges,

and I will now go on to explain the decisions I made to overcome them.

To be able to decide what kind of information to provide, I had to take the time frame

into consideration. For the newspaper article, I wanted to set it up as if the events had already

taken place and the audience was acquiring new information that would give them a

completely different perspective. I did this so that I could build on the idea of taking a biased

story and giving it a whole new perspective. To be able to set my article up for my audience,

I created this lede, The trial remains on hold as the Big Bad Wolf is still in a coma, but new

evidence has surfaced that may prove his innocence (Lim 1). The purpose of this was to give

my audience a good summary of what has happened already based on facts, and it allows

them to understand the current situation that is about to unfold as well. Next, I had to create a
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body for the article that contained enough logos and ethos. In order to satisfy this, I created a

lot of new information. To build on the articles ethos, the sources of new information

consisted of a childhood friend, a researcher at a well-renowned university, eyewitnesses,

security footage, and a bank. I did this with the intent of providing the audience with credible

sources that would allow them to believe that the information they were receiving was more

reliable. The information itself was laid out in an order that would allow the audience to

make logical decisions. It was first said that the Wolf had been suffering from chronic

asthma (Lim 1) and that through the results of a military simulation discovered that even if

Wolf was at full lung capacity without asthma, the force from Wolfs blow would not have

been strong enough to destroy a house (Lim 2). Then intention behind giving the audience

this information was so that they would come to realise that under no circumstances would

Big Bad have been physically able to commit the crime. To add the cherry on top, it was also

stated that eyewitnesses and security footage confirmed that the Big Bad Wolf was indeed

using his inhaler during the day of the crime (Lim 2). Now the audience is left wondering if

the Wolf could not have done it, what could have happened instead? To help answer this

question the next piece of information given was that the Three Little Pigs have been

struggling to keep up with their mortgage payments comes into play (Lim 2). Now the

audience is presented with a motive that could have driven the Pigs to frame the Wolf. The

decisions made in the information provided and the order in which they were presented were

chosen to build upon the logos of the article and appeal to an intelligent audience. In addition

to the way the information was delivered, there were more ideas that had to be carefully

planned.

Once I had the idea for how I wanted to deliver the information, I also had to make

sure that I created a situation that was believable for my audience. I felt like this was the

largest challenge I faced. Because the original story was a make-believe fairytale, there was
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some complexity when writing an article that had to portray a realistic set of events that

would appeal to logos and ethos. I had no prior knowledge of the law and how proceedings

may take place in the real world. I solved this problem by doing extensive research to be able

to make sure that I was not providing my audience with any false information. If the article

were to be published in real life and there was a discrepancy with the information provided, it

would have a drastic effect on the believability of the entire article. The next challenge was

keeping my language concise and objective. There were times where I found that my own

biases would enter my writing and swing in favor Wolfs occasionally. I will admit that I did

let some of these biases shine through the information I had created. I made this decision

consciously to fulfill my overall purpose of giving my audience a new perspective from the

original piece.

This writing project was incredibly fun to do, and I particularly enjoyed doing the

genre translation. My biggest take away was learning how both genres made use of different

techniques to achieve their purpose. Before this class I had never heard of the Rhetorical

Triangle, and now I have learned it I see everything in a new light. Over the course of the

quarter, I have found that I have understood myself much better as both a writer and a reader.

Just like how I intended to change perspectives using the translation, my own perspective was

changed as well. Before taking Writing 2, almost everyone I had spoken to told me this was

One of the worst classes at UCSB (Almost Everyone). I had been dreading taking this

class, but in my personal opinion it has been one of the best classes I have taken. I felt fully

engaged and mentally stimulated throughout, and for the most part I felt I had the freedom to

write what I cared about. Taking this class will definitely have a long lasting impression on

me and I am looking forward to my next writing class in the hopes that it will not disappoint.
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Works Cited

Carroll, Laura Bolin. Backpacks vs. Briefcases. Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-

Publication Data (2010)

Dirk, Kerry. Navigating Genres. Parlor Press (2010): 1-15. Print.

Lim, Alexander. New Evidence May Prove Big Bad Wolfs Innocence.

Sweeney, Alyse. The Three Little Pigs.