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Brian Coyle

Ms. Bocchino

Writing 2

May 20, 2024

Genre Translation: Academic Article to Sports Journalism Website

Quick Note to Allison: I acknowledge that this needs to be under 6 pages, the writing is under 6 pages total but the pdfs of my

genre translation takes up a lot of space on the pages. Works cited page as well. This seems longer than it actually is.
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Imagine yourself sitting and wondering how the impact of concussions work and how

they affect American football, but you are too lazy to look and find a boring article. What if you

could learn about it in an easier and more user friendly way? This is where the art of genre

translation can be established. A genre translation requires the understanding of what comprises

both genres and changing the characteristics of one into another. The genre translation that is

being attempted is from an academic article regarding the history of the concussion crisis in the

sport of American football into a non-academic sports journalism website. This piece was

reinvented from Emily A. Harrison’s article called “The First Concussion Crisis: Head Injury and

Evidence in Early American Football” into an ESPN web page that appeals to a broader audience

over the issue. In order to successfully translate one genre into another, the writer must

understand the genre and writing conventions, maintenance of accuracy between genres, and

understanding of audience expectations.

The article "The First Concussion Crisis: Head Injury and Evidence in Early American

Football" by Emily A. Harrison was packaged as an academic and informational article that

strives to inform readers about the history of concussions within the sport of American football.

The article shines light on the sport in a new perspective by offering past accounts of players and

coaches from the early beginnings of the sport along with statistical data from the CDC

regarding the amount of concussions suffered in 2006.1 This can give the reader a deeper thought

into the looming seriousness of the problem, as in how many concussions were suffered without

the improved safety equipment prior to the year 2006. Being written by an author in the medical

field, it uses scholarly language and tone along with formal structure dividing key ideas within

well structured paragraphs with subheadings which mainly appeals to academic readers in the

1
Emily A. Harrison, “The First Concussion Crisis: Head Injury and Evidence in Early American
Football,” American Journal of Public Health 104, no. 5 (2014): 822–833.
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sports medicine field. The author also highlights past methods such as the lack of doctors

knowing long term health effects of concussions and study samples adding insight to her own

thoughts on sports medicine as a whole. Harrison addresses financial incentives and cultural

violent entertainment are what battle the solution to the concussion crisis. The audience is most

likely intended for those in a similar study field whether it be public health, sports medicine, or

even historical and anthropological studies. Ultimately, the academic article provides an

intelligent and informative history of the issue while highlighting the evolution of sports

medicine in a formal structure targeting a medical based audience.

The conventions of the new non-academic genre, being sports journalism through an

ESPN web page, are more informal conversations and structure through reader comments, appeal

to a broader audience with simpler language, and integration of recent events such as relevant

and up to date NFL news to support a modern day view of the subject. I remember that we did

the exercise that was explained in Boyd’s reading in class regarding rhetoric in which only a few

details were given to us such as who, what, where, when, how.2 The exercise made us think

about how we would respond with another genre or in this case a police report regarding a

murder in Boyd’s writing. The exercise really helped me unlock my creative side and helped me

take the information given to me and reinterpret it into something new. I took this mindset into

this assignment by recomposing the ideas of Harrison’s article into something new. As the new

genre is sports journalism, three non-academic examples of this genre can include a sports

magazine, sports blog, and sports article. The genre I ended up choosing was a sports article in

the form of an ESPN3 web page that focuses on concussions in the sport. I visited the real life

2
Janet Boyd. "Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking)." In Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Vol.
2., 2011
3
ESPN. Accessed May 20, 2024. https://www.espn.com/
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ESPN web page for inspiration for a successful genre translation. The web page features photos

of moments of action in sports, reader comments to implement conversations and new insights of

the public, integrated with an informative article that targets a broad audience. I kept the

accuracy from Harrison’s historical article by implementing key aspects from her article but

changed some of the language and jargon so that it could appeal to a broader audience. I wanted

to make it so that a normal person or a sports fan would actually want to sit down and give this a

short read while maintaining the accuracy from the primary article. In doing so, me being a

normal sports fan thought about what I would want in an ESPN article. A key convention that I

included was a comments section for the public to give their opinion on the issue and inspire

thoughts and debate among others. I placed the reader comments on the side of the article to keep

the reader engaged with the reading while also gaining insights from other people in the

community. I also included photos that helped the reader paint a picture of the information being

told. I did this by including a picture of a NFL quarterback getting tackled at the beginning of the

article to show the intensity of potential injuries. I tried making it as accurate as possible to a real

ESPN web page so I also included like, comment, and share buttons at the top to add more user

friendly accessibility and easy to share information with friends. Along the left column are

external news links and media from other sports leagues to encourage reading other articles.

Finally, I implemented the concepts of the original article with the NFL’s current news today by

including the story of Tua Tagovailoa who suffered from two brutal concussions in 2022. This

sparked a lot of debate amongst the community and the NFL so I thought it was necessary to

include in the web page. This event led to the improvement of the NFL’s concussion protocol,

which directly connects to Harrison’s analysis of the evolution of sports medicine in American

football. A rule that I bent on making this new genre was the use of direct quotes from the
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original article. I wanted to keep this piece as casual and informal as possible by simplifying the

original article as much as possible. I kept the accuracy from some quotes from Harrison’s article

but did not use in-text citation. However, I incorporated links at the bottom of the page for those

who wanted more in-depth information on the topic by including the original article link giving

credit to Harrison’s work. I also removed bias and kept the information as universal as possible.

Converting the genre from an academic to non-academic article, Giles’ “Reflective Writing and

Revision Process” really helped me assure the conventions of my new genre.4 When Giles

highlighted the step by step process of peer editing, it made me really reflect on what my

classmates had to say about my initial thoughts on my genre translation. This made me truly take

into consideration what the reader workshop that we did in class did for me, as I was able to

change many of my mistakes and see what I was doing right. Ultimately, Harrison’s academic

article was translated into an ESPN web page by including new conventions such as photos

relevant to modern day, integration of simplified language to appeal to the broader public,

conversation opportunities through comments and sharing, and implementation of a modern day

story supporting the ideas of the previous text.

In the end, the successful translation of Harrison’s academic article into a sports

journalism piece in the form of an ESPN web page required a careful balance of maintaining

accuracy, including a broader audience into these themes, and adapting new genre conventions.

This genre translation allows the ideas of the previous text to be relayed to a new audience by

keeping the same accuracy but changing the conventions to appeal to the audience. Many

methods were essential to this translation, such as creative thinking, constructive criticism

4
Sandra L. Giles "Reflective Writing and the Revision Process." In Naming What We Know:
Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies, edited by Linda Adler-Kassner and Elizabeth Wardle,
80-97. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2015.
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through peer editing, rough drafts and revisions. Many aspects of the original text were changed

such as direct quotes and in text citations to have an uninterrupted flow for a sports journalism

article. My favorite and most creative aspect of recreating this new genre was making it relevant

to today’s news through Tua’s story and connecting the dots between Harrison’s article and

what’s going on in the current football world. I think I successfully addressed the needs of both

audiences, kept accuracy, and established proper genre and writing conventions proving a

successful genre translation.

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Works Cited

ESPN. Accessed May 20, 2024. https://www.espn.com/

Harrison, Emily A. “The First Concussion Crisis: Head Injury and Evidence in Early American
Football.” American journal of public health (1971) 104, no. 5 (2014): 822–833.

Giles, Sandra L. "Reflective Writing and the Revision Process." In Naming What We Know:

Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies, edited by Linda Adler-Kassner and Elizabeth Wardle,

80-97. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2015.

Boyd, Janet. "Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking)." In Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Vol. 2.,
2011