Alessandro Gonzalez

Converting a piece of academic writing into a new genre is a difficult task that leaves me

questioning why academics make their work so complicated. In order to effectively translate

from one genre to another one must take into consideration a multitude of factors. A few of these

factors being, target audience, language, and medium choice. I decided to translate the article,

“Scandals and Congressional Elections in the post-Watergate Era” by Scott J. Basinger into a

podcast format as I believe this is one of the most effective ways to get information across

especially in the genre of politics as it allows for more of a discussion based approach rather than

just writing the facts and putting it in front of you. Political scandals have shaped American

politics and one of the most significant being the events of Watergate where burglars broke into

the Democratic party headquarters in an attempt to steal documents and bug the office. This plot

went all the way up to President Nixon himself and sent shockwaves throughout the political

world. The article focuses on a study that seeks to answer the question which is whether scandals

have an effect on congressional elections. The information is presented in a relatively standard

academic way with an introduction, data, research methods, analysis and conclusion. The

original audience of this paper would most likely be fellow academics and possibly some

students if their research or classes required them to look into a topic like that. A third audience

may be the random overly politically engaged person who reads academic papers for fun. A

podcast approach allows for a greater reach to the public and can be accessed by a majority of

people who own any form of a computer, phone or tablet. Podcasts can oftentimes have more

than just one speaker(although in my case only 1) which allows for varying perspectives as well

as a dialogue which is much harder to accomplish in an academic journal. Due to the

circumstances it was more practical to just have me be the speaker rather than trying to find

someone to converse with. Podcasts can take the form of a conversation in some cases rather

than just throwing information at you and hoping you understand.

When it came to translating the article to a podcast format it was difficult to decide which

points to take from the reading and share with an audience. I didn’t want to create a 30 minute

podcast because one that's not fair to you as a professor to sit and listen to me talk that long and

two it’s just too much work to try and create a more official podcast that fits the average podcast

episode genre. For the sake of the class I felt it was better to create something concise that got

the main ideas across in an efficient way. Granted it may be better to have created a longer

podcast but given the circumstances I felt this was the best option. In doing the translation I

realized how the ways in which I analyzed academic writing changed because I was looking for

certain pieces of information that would most efficiently get the point across. When reading an

article for a class I look in greater detail at the whole paper rather than focusing on certain

sections, this is in part because it may pop up on an exam or essay prompt. Recording myself

talking wasn’t my favorite thing in the world and it took a few tries to actually get through a

whole recording without forgetting a piece of information or messing up but that added to getting

a better grasp on the translation itself.

One of the readings, “Genre in the Wild” by Lisa Bickmore describes genre as, “The term

genre means “kind, sort, or style” and is often applied to kinds of art and media, for instance,

sorts of novels, films, television shows, and so on. In writing studies, we find all sorts of written

genres, not just ones that you might classify as artistic (or creative).” (Bickmore) The way genre

is presented here is helpful when it comes to genre translation because although brief gives you a

sense of how expansive genres can be and that there is not just one way to approach them.
Genres are everywhere and can be defined easily or sometimes in complex ways. Another

reading that builds upon this is “Navigating Genre” by Kerry Dirk says this, “By this point you

might realize that you have been participating in many different genres—whether you are telling

a joke, writing an email, or uploading a witty status on Facebook. Because you know how these

genres function as social actions, you can quite accurately predict how they function rhetorically;

your joke should generate a laugh, your email should elicit a response, and your updated

Facebook status should generate comments from your online friends”(Dirk) At first I felt that

trying to pinpoint genres would be much more difficult but as time went on it became apparent

that it’s much easier to define genres when you simply take into account the different mediums it

can take.

One of the more enjoyable readings was “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lammot which

gave me more peace of mind when it comes to actually writing papers or anything in general. It

can be difficult at times to even get a paragraph down let alone a multi page essay on whatever

topic a professor has given me. The quote, “In fact, the only way I can get anything written at all

is to write really, really shitty first drafts.” (Lammot) is comedic yet holds true as a first draft is

usually shitty and overall not great but is key to moving forwards and creating a well worked

paper. A final reading that was helpful in the process was “Really Responding to Other Students

Writing” by Richard Straub. This reading was helpful as it gave advice on how to go over a peers

work and provide useful feedback which in turn can give you a better perspective on your own

work. “Don’t steer away from being critical. r:eel free-in fact, feel obliged-to tell the writer what

you like and don't like” (Straub) It can be difficult when reading someone else’s work and

provided feedback without the fear of coming across as negative or judgmental but in reality we

all need to be critiqued on our work and it can help greatly to make the writing better. Being able
to see what my classmates are doing is helpful as it can give ideas on how to improve and

approach the genre translation.