Hector Albiter

Writ 2

Wilson

June 7.2017

WP3: Translations
 WP3 Analysis

Ive always imagined the thought of being able to read inside peoples minds. I imagine

getting inside their brains and scooping out every thought, feeling and emotion that lies inside all

that pink matter. The closest anyone can get into my innermost thoughts can be accessed through

my Tumblr blog. In this paper, I translated the academic article Social Support, Depression, Self
Esteem and Coping among LGBTQ Adolescents Participating in Hatch Youth into the personal

Tumblr posts of one of the participating survey individuals coping with depression. By doing so,

I keep the same argument and purpose, yet the intended audience shift from one of community

leaders seeking to implement an effective support group for LGBT Youth, to an audience of

likeminded teenagers on Tumblr like the teenager hoping to relate to someone and attend a

similar program.

Michael Wilkerson acknowledges the effect this unsupportive society has on LGBTQ

youth and presents the audience with a solution and its effectiveness. The argument of this article

is in support of the effectiveness of hatch groups in that it improve[s] the mental health of

LGBTQ youth, including depression, self-esteem, and coping ability, and reduce subsequent

behavioral risk. This article is centered around a study conducted regarding hatch groups and

had reported higher social support among those who participated (Wilkerson 362). The Tumblr

posts actually address the real life experience of queer people all while maintaining the purpose

of endorsing the effectiveness of hatch groups. So, while both genres share the same person, as a

result of their intended audience, the journal article will opt for less emotional, more formal

diction to maintain objectivity whereas the Tumblr posts will be filled with emotions to provide a

relatable post to other Tumblr users to engage with and possibly reblog.

The entries depict the mental health progress the article claims that hatch groups can

assist in. The article collects data regarding perceived social support with 5-point likert-type

items (who knows what that is) that address three aspects of perceived social support, family

friends, and significant others which basically means that a number will tell whether the

narrator has received adequate social support (Wilkerson 361). This was translated into
experiences in the Tumblr posts where negative social support can be interpreted in that Im not

welcomed or Dad avoids me pretty much points to inadequate social support.

In order to write these Tumblr posts, I took the words of Peter Elbow into consideration.

Free writing and exploratory writing, on the other hand, are usually productive because they

explore the autonomous generative power of language where I interpreted this as being able to

write freely without restrictions, something that Tumblr (blog) writing is essentially all about

(Elbow 39) . Tumblr has no restrictions as far as what you can say due to the anonymity of the

internet so you could basically pour your heart out. Because of this, its not weird for the narrator

of my journal entries to write I may be depressed or I feel my self esteem exponentially

decreasing. By translating this into a direct statement, the audience got the same idea that they

did in the article where they can note the mental health progress of those who attend hatch

groups.

The challenges I faced with writing this genre was making it feel legitimate. In other

words, I wanted to add some specific details that, aside from accomplishing the argument and

purpose of the journal articles, had also described the writer and their own life as well. I wanted

to include details such as name and detailed events that makes it seem believable.
Work Cited

Wilkerson, J. Michael, et al. "Social Support, Depression, Self-Esteem, and Coping among
LGBTQ Adolescents Participating in Hatch Youth." Health Promotion Practice, vol. 18,
no. 3, May 2017, pp. 358-365. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1177/1524839916654461.

Elbow, Peter. "Teaching thinking by teaching writing." Change: The Magazine of Higher
Learning 15.6 (1983): 37-40.