Short Assignment 2: Everyday Translation
For your second SA, you can engage in several possible ‘translation’ situations. The purpose of this assignment is to get you thinking about audience, stakes, and genre translation (Outcome 1). Even when working within one language, as expository writers we are still translators thinking about who is reading/listening to us, and genre is an important factor in conveying the message appropriately. In this assignment you need to think carefully about your linguistic and stylistic choices, making sure that they are appropriate for the chosen genre. How does your language change from one genre to the other?
For SA2, please do one of the following and then write a writer’s memo:
Option 1:
First, write a letter to a friend about a successful moment you’ve had in your life so far (1 page)
> Then, describe the same moment in a cover letter to a potential employer (1 page)
Option 2:
First, write a Facebook status shared with your friends about the lunch you had (about 3-4 sentences long)
> Then, describe the same lunch for a fancy food blog (2-3 pages)
Option 3:
First, write a brief set of instructions for an outdoor activity (i.e. pitching a tent, making a fire, finding your way through the woods, etc.) that could go in a manual (1-2 pages, draw/insert pictures if you’d like)
> Then, write down what you might say if you had to explain this to your confused friend (who finally found reception in the woods) over the phone. (1-2 pages)
Option 4:
Suggest another genre translation and run it by me!
Logistics:
The length of each of these genres would vary of course, but I’d like for you to aim for 2-3 pages double-spaced total. 12pt font Times New Roman, 1” margins top/left/right/bottom.
1-page separate Writer’s Memo
A writer’s memo is a reflection of your process as you worked on this assignment. You can write anything about what was successful/unsuccessful about your project, what you learned, etc. Here are some questions that can get you started:
- Compare the rhetorical and linguistic choices you made in the first part of the assignment to the ones you made in the second part of the assignment. Explain why you think those choices are best for that genre. Why do you think they were effective?
- What is a specific element you’d like me to focus on (for feedback)?
- What do you think are the strengths of your paper? What are some weaknesses you found that you’d like to focus on our later revision sequence for the portfolio?
- What was your process/approach for tackling this paper? Do you think it was successful? Is it something you would like to change in the future?
- Look over the outcomes again; do you feel like this assignment helped you work with any of the outcomes and understand them better? In what way? Are you still struggling to understand parts of these outcomes?
Outcomes targeted: 1
Email me at [email protected] if you have any questions or concerns, I am here to help!
Can you please write 2 pages for OPTION 2 and 1 page for the writer’s memo