Bailey Barber

Katya Lopakto

WRIT 2

23 April 2023

Mental Health: College Students and the Pandemic

Mental health is an ongoing issue that affects the lives of many individuals. Mental health

disorders such as stress and anxiety are present in many people, especially college students. It is

important to understand the seriousness of mental health disorders, as well as spread awareness

for treatment and support. During the pandemic, many people struggled to adapt to a new

environment, ultimately having detrimental effects on their mental health. Poor sleeping patterns

were another effect of the global pandemic, also hitting the younger population hard. The article

“Intra-individual impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health and sleep in young adults”

by Knickerbocker, reveals the several negative neurological impacts that the pandemic had on

young adults, more specifically university students. This academic article reveals the statistics

and findings of a study conducted before the pandemic, and was subsequently compared to a

repeat study in the midst of the pandemic.

The original audience of the academic article were researchers or people with a great

understanding of psychology or neuroscience; the terminology and vocabulary discussed in the

article caters to those who have a great education or understanding of psychology, excluding a

wide population of people.I decided to translate this article into a Youtube video in order to

appeal to a younger audience. More specifically I wanted the new intended audience to be young

adults, or university students. Not only is the academic article based on college students, but the

topic concerning mental health is relatable to many young adults. Many college students struggle
with mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression, and it is important to spread

awareness of these common issues among this population who is at a high risk of experiencing

mental health troubles. College students are also under immense amounts of social and academic

pressure, also increasing their likelihood of experiencing sleep and mental health changes. As a

college student, I often find myself browsing YouTube, watching similar types of educational

videos. I get a lot of my knowledge from Youtube as it is an easy and accessible way to get

information about various topics, which is another reason I chose to translate the article to this

genre.

One of the most challenging changes I made from the academic article to a

Youtube video was the amount of information that was presented. Some educational videos, such

as those made by the channel “The Infographics Show”, use specific statistics and numbers to

make their evidence seem more credible or “correct”. However, I think that sometimes when

authors include this information, it becomes less entertaining, and the audience is more likely to

click out of the video. I decided to use broad facts that were concluded in the study while still

explaining the main points and overall findings of the study. Rather than including the exact

percentages, I gave the overall conclusions that were made based off of those numbers. The

examples that I found prior to writing the script of the Youtube video also followed this format,

such as those made by the National Geographic channel. The language was casual, and the main

point was summarized almost as if it were a story. This is a rhetorical strategy utilized by the

authors in an attempt to keep the audience entertained. I also utilized this sort of communicative

and informal tone to keep the audience interested, as I didn't want the video to seem like a

lecture. Because YouTube is a social media platform, it is meant to provide both entertainment
and education. This was one of the biggest challenges in translating the academic article to a

video, since the academic article was solely concerned with the academic aspects.

Another challenge I faced while translating the article into a Youtube video was the way

that the information was formatted and written out. While I have written many different kinds of

texts, a script that was meant to be read outloud was a bit challenging. This shift of genres, word

choice, and formatting are known as far transfer which is discussed in a section of the book

Writing about Writing. This concept of far transfer is considered something that “requires us to

draw on and use what we know from previous experiences.”(20) I am not used to writing in a

way that is meant to be read out loud. I think there is a significant difference between writing

that is read silently versus out loud to an audience. I think this is because when you read

something out loud to an audience there needs to be a conversational tone. Reading a formal text

to an audience does not sound natural or flow, so adding conversational and casual tone is

necessary. A verbal speech is written differently than a formal essay or an academic article

would be written. This new style of writing was something that I needed to think about, as well

as tweak and rearrange multiple times. The language of a video must be casual, and flow in a

way that sounds natural when read out loud. In addition to a language shift, there must be visual

elements that are appealing to the viewers, such as photos, videos, or graphs. This is another

aspect that wasn’t applied in the academic article, that I am going to incorporate into the final

YouTube video. There was no entertaining appeal, meaning the author was not concerned with

adding visual elements that would grab the attention of the audience. This is an aspect that

requires creativity, again something that is not included in the academic article. This concept can

be applied to the reading “Writing with Pictures” where the importance of imagery and visual

appeal is depicted. An animated comic square explains “the need to take the form of images in
sequence”(1), a technique that falls under another category of storytelling. We want the audience

to remain interested and engaged, so adding pictures and words can be crucial when making

visual appeals.

I have never really considered the impact that different genres have on audiences. I

assumed that it had to do with personal preference of the author, in which some cases it does.

However most of the time it seems that a genre is chosen strategically in order to appeal to a

certain target audience. I think back to the reading “How to read like a Writer,” and the section

that talks about the importance of genres. It is important to understand that there are some

“techniques that are effective for one genre may not work well in another.”' (77) This concept of

appealing to different audiences by utilizing different genres can come in handy. Maybe in the

future I will need to advertise something or try to persuade an audience to do something. In these

cases, I can use this idea of genres to appeal to a certain population, to increase my chances of

persuasion.

Genres are effective. In a way it seems to be manipulation, as we know the techniques

and strategies to convince or educate a target group of people. With the knowledge of genres, I

can persuade, convince, or manipulate an audience's opinions or emotions by writing in a

specific way. Genre translations have helped me to realize the effectiveness of writing with a

purpose.
 Works cited

Bunn, Mike. "How to Read Like a Writer." Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 2,

edited by Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky, Parlor Press, 2011,

Knickerbocker, Kelly J., et al. “Intra-Individual Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental

Health and Sleep in Young Adults.” PLOS ONE, vol. 17, no. 10, 2022,

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0276165.

McCloud, Scott. “Writing With Pictures.” Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics,

Manga and Graphic Novels. William Morrow, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers,

2006.

Wardle, Elizabeth, and Doug Downs. Writing about Writing. University of California Santa

Barbara, fourth edition. Bedford/St. Martin's, Macmillan Learning, 2020.