A Metacognitive Reflection: Simplifying Money

Israel Mendez

Writing 2

Mar 6, 2024
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There is a structure that is followed when translating writing from one genre to another.

To begin, you have to fully understand both genres and understand the power of words and tone.

The importance in appealing to a given audience and delivering information in its conventions.

In efforts to bring a more broadened audience to basic financial knowledge I translated a

scholarly academic research paper into a children's picture book. This technique seeks to

examine the intricacies involved in making difficult psychological and financial ideas

understandable and interesting to a younger audience.

The primary text, a scholarly article, “Money: Ontology and Deception” by John Searle

was written with the intention of explaining the complex nature of money to readers who are

interested in learning about its monetary and psychological aspects. The structure of his article

followed a conventional article structure with a title, subheadings, and chapter divided into a

couple paragraphs. It uses an educational tone to guide the reader through the complexities of

financial understanding. For instance, the author explains what is money, “Money performs two

functions, and on some accounts, three. First, money is a medium of exchange. Second, it is a

store of value. And third, on some accounts, it is a measure of value.” 1 It almost feels like it's a

professor teaching a class standing up in the front of the classroom giving a lesson. The author's

intention to provide profound insights into the false value of money is made clear by the use of

intricate adjectives and the chapters each with their unique titles picking apart the illusion of

money. It is also apparent that the intended discourse communities go beyond finance and

economic professionals and include individuals with a psychological interest in the topic. You

can see this because he doesn’t only give lessons about money but also psychological content.

1 John R. Searle, “Money: Ontology and Deception.” Cambridge Journal of Economics 41, no. 5, 3.
https://academic.oup.com/cje/article/41/5/1453/4096478?login=true
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For example, he explains, “Epistemic objectivity and subjectivity are always features of claims,

statements, assertions, etc. Underlying that epistemic distinction is a distinction in modes of

existence.” 2 He is explaining philosophical and psychological terms he believes are necessary to

teach the ontology of money. In his article his main objective is to have people really understand

money but to that he was forced to teach lessons covering other discourses.

Transitioning to the non-academic genre, the chosen genre is a children's picture book,

designed to explain the concept of money for young minds. This genre is built on simplicity and

visual engagement. Where the writing is complemented by illustrations, mirroring experiences

that kids actually have. The experiences include walking to school and finding something cool.

Then going to school and showing a teacher, proceeding to get a lecture from them. This

experience is one that many kids can relate with. The educational intent remains, the purpose is

to start teaching kids how money really works and what it really is. The delivery is tailored to an

elementary comprehension level. With that being said, ensuring that complex ideas are

simplified into understandable fragments accompanied was crucial to not lose the kid in the

reading process. The reading, Literary Genre Translations by Cirocco Dunlap really helped me

with this portion showing me how certain word changes can completely change the genre. It

helped me keep the main message about the truth of money, but allowed me to change my

wording to let kids understand. I also invented a storyline to keep the children engaged, knowing

that kids easily get bored. I constructed a story of a kid finding a dollar on his way to school,

running to his professor excitedly, he shows him and asks him to teach him about money. The

professor does it in a way where he will be able to understand. I chose to mimic child language

so the reader would understand and picture themselves as the character in my translation.

2 John R. Searle, “Money: Ontology and Deception,” 4.

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The translation procedure included a careful selection of the article's essential concept

that offered the greatest educational value for young readers. This meant keeping the original

message's core intact, while simplifying the language and ideas. The use of clipart images was an

essential method that was used to keep the kids engaged. Given the fact that kids get bored

easily. I took the author's explanation on what money is and translated it into a simpler version,

then made a story. In the story there is a teacher teaching the kid what the author taught me. So

in the translation I made the child ask the questions and the teacher respond. The reason behind

the story was so the kids reading, envision themself asking those types of questions as well. My

whole thought process was to get a kid to start and finish my book without getting bored and

retaining information. This approach required bending certain rules like leaving out information

in the article that I thought were too complex for kids. There was information that was even too

complex for me to understand, due to psychological discourse language that was used. Another

article that really helped me out was week 3’s, Learning the language by Perri Klass. As I was

reading the scholarly article I realized there was a psychology language being spoken in some

parts of the article, I couldn’t understand. So I started taking Perri Klass’s advice and started

using context clues and searching up the meanings. By the end I was able to understand the

psychology language and translate it to the kids. I was only able to teach them two things: what

money actually is and what types of money there are. Proceeding to demonstrate what type of

money we use here in America and how they should view money after consuming this

knowledge. I left out longer lessons like, “What do you have 100 of when you have one hundred

dollars? Strictly speaking, you do not have 100 of anything. What you have is a certain power,

and that power is measured roughly by assigning a numerical value.”3 The reason being that I am

writing a children's book. It was important to simplify the topics and avoid information that

3 John R. Searle, “Money: Ontology and Deception,” 5.

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could confuse the kids. At the end of the translation, I felt satisfied because all concepts were

carefully explained to be retained by kids.

To conclude, it was a difficult but interesting process to adapt complex concepts about

the nature of money and its illusions from an academic paper to a children's picture book. This

method involved simplifying complicated concepts into information that young readers could

comprehend and find interesting. The book attempted to simplify the academic discourse for

younger viewers without losing any of the subject's depth by narrating the story of a curious kid

who is assisted by a knowledgeable teacher in his effort to comprehend money. The intention of

teaching fundamental knowledge without overloading young brains led to the idea selection,

which focused on the different kinds and uses of money. This project made me more

knowledgeable about financial ideas and made me realize how crucial versatility is to both

education and communication. It emphasized the importance of interesting lessons in inspiring

children's interest and critical thinking and providing them with the skills necessary to succeed in

a challenging environment.
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Bibliography

Searle, John R. 2017. “Money: Ontology and Deception.” Cambridge Journal of Economics 41,

no. 5. https://academic.oup.com/cje/article/41/5/1453/4096478?login=true

Dunlap, Cirocco. n.d. “Literacy Genre Translation.” McSweeny's.

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/literary-genre-translations.

Klass, Peri. n.d. Learning the Language.