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Reflection: Sharing Academic Findings Through A Web News Article

Ke Zhou

Writing Program, University of California, Santa Barbara

Writing 2: Academic Writing

Elica Sue

June 5, 2022
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Reflection: Sharing Academic Findings Through A Web News Article

Dogs have long been recognized as friends of humans. Many people believe that dogs

enhance people's sense of responsibility and confidence. Dogs also bring happiness and

energy to humans. I am also very fond of dogs. Thus, I am interested in articles about dogs. I

translated the academic article The relationship between dog ownership, dog play, family dog

walking, and pre-schooler social–emotional development: findings from the PLAYCE

observational study into an informal web news article to convey to the public who uses the

Internet and is a parent of little kids that activities with dogs are beneficial to pre-schoolers'

development. In the translation, I informed the new audience through concise and clear

words, strictly following the conventions of web news articles.

The academic article The relationship between dog ownership, dog play, family dog

walking, and pre-schooler social–emotional development: findings from the PLAYCE

observational study is one of the few academic articles that investigates the relationship of

dogs and young children of 2-5 years old. I set my new intended audience for my translation

as the public who uses the Internet and is a parent of little kids. Since my new genre is web

news article, the targeted audience needs to use the Internet. Because this is a translation of a

professional academic article that is concerned with dogs and little kids, the readers should be

interested in the topic. The main difference between my new intended audience and the

intended audience in the research article I chose, the scholars, is the knowledge of the

specific academic area. My new intended audience tends to have less knowledge of

mentioned studies, methods of research, and jargon. They also usually lack the ability to

interpret research results and statistic charts. Thus, my translation needs to modify the
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original academic article to a version that is understandable for my new audience.

To help my new audience understand the original article easily, I chose to translate the

academic article into a web news article. As the Internet is very commonly used in people's

daily life, a web news article makes my translation more easily accessed by people. Web

news articles usually consist of short paragraphs, concise sentences, understandable diction,

and visual aids like relevant pictures. These features all help me communicate my message to

my new intended audience and enable them better understand what the academic article is

trying to convey.

To integrate information from the academic article into my new genre naturally, I made

many adjustments. Among the adjustments, tone and diction are very important. According to

Boyd (2011), "you are making decisions about which words to use and what tone to establish

as you order your thoughts based upon what is appropriate for your intended audience in that

context" (p. 87). Thus, I made adjustments to make the article have appropriate tone and

diction. Because this is a web news article, I should use concise words and create a light tone.

Since the reason for making the research and main goals are clearly stated in the scholarly

article, I kept them in my translated article and replaced some academic diction with daily

words. In the original article, there are many statistics and charts that are not suitable for my

web news article, because they are too overwhelming for the public with lack of experiences

of interpreting such data. So, I changed these statistics into more friendly explanations.

Besides, there are also specific research methods and jargon in the academic article, which

are not understandable for my new intended audience. Thus, I deleted those hard and not

important parts for my web news article. During the translation, I used words that are not
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very serious instead of using academic words. All of the above changes were aimed to make

sure the experience of reading my translation is not so hard for the public and create a light

tone through appropriate diction. Besides, I paid attention to the use of pathos in my

translation. As Carroll (2010) states in Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical

Analysis, "Pathos can also be a very effective appeal if the rhetor has to persuade the

audience in a very short amount of time, which is why it is used heavily in print

advertisements, billboards, or television commercials" (p. 53). In my translation, I also used

pathos to make my translation more attractive. I added a relevant picture of a kid and a dog.

This picture helps people imagine a real situation of a kid and a reliable dog and creates a

sense of warmth. In the introduction, I also used sentences that give people a sense of close

connections to dogs. Using pathos helps me attract and persuade the audience more easily. In

addition to pathos, I also used ethos in my translation, which develops the credibility of my

translation. I introduced the researchers to show that they are professional and have reliable

credentials. The process of research and findings in my translation better convince my

audience that dogs are really beneficial to little kids. Thus, these elements help enhance the

credibility of my article, and ethos makes my audience tend to trust the conclusion of the

article. All of the above adjustments were aimed to make my web news article more friendly

to my new intended audience who probably have no background knowledge in the academic

area.

When I was translating the academic article into the web news article, I always had one

thing in mind, which was the new targeted audience. Since my new article is going to be read

by my new audience, I had to make my new article tailored for my new audience, which is
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the public who uses the Internet and is a parent of little kids. Since the new audience usually

lacks background knowledge, I removed jargons and difficult reasonings. I also remembered

to make my tone appropriate. For my web news article, I kept my paragraphs short and easy

to browse, which enables the new audience to capture much information in a short time. To

accomplish the translation, I used some skills as aid. I utilized my ability of choosing dictions

to help my article maintain in an appropriate tone. I also utilized my ability to differentiate

whether a part of the original article is suitable in my translated article. Addition, deletion,

and change were made in order to tailor my new article for my new audience.

During the translation, I faced some challenges. One of the challenges was how to

convert the article naturally. Translating an article is not to copy and paste main information

from the original article, but to convey the main ideas in a new way to a group of new

audience. To express the ideas appropriately instead of copying and pasting, I needed to truly

understand what the academic means. Thus, I carefully read the whole academic article.

When confronted some unknown jargon, I searched for it on the Internet to understand the

meanings of them. There were also several charts that were hard to interpret. So, I read the

charts again and again with attention until I really understood what the charts are talking

about. Another challenge was how to maintain a light tone in the new article. Since I am used

to write formal school papers, I am not familiar with the light tone. After I wrote a paragraph,

I always checked back to see whether there were some parts that were too serious or

academic. If such a part was found, I extracted the main purpose and meaning of that part and

expressed it again in a more daily tone. In this way, I ensured that the tone in the new web

news article is appropriate for the new audience.

In conclusion, I translated the academic article The relationship between dog ownership,

dog play, family dog walking, and pre-schooler social–emotional development: findings from

the PLAYCE observational study into a web news article. I utilized the skills and knowledge I

learned before or in the writing course and paid attention to what was important. Appropriate

adjustments were made to serve for my new audience and tone. Though there were several

challenges in the translation process, I overcame them and become more familiar with

interpreting academic articles. This translation into a web news article enables an academic

article accessible to more readers form the public, and makes the findings more widely

known. Dogs are not only friends of adults, but also companion of kids. The relationship

between dogs and pre-schoolers is more clearly investigated and unveiled through this

research. Parents of little kids can now be more confident about whether a dog is beneficial

after reading the translated web news article.

References

Boyd, J. (2011). Murder! (rhetorically speaking). Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing,

volume 2, 87-101.

Carroll, L. B. (2010). Backpacks vs. Briefcases: steps toward rhetorical analysis. Writing

Spaces: Readings on Writing, volume 1, 45-58.

Wenden, E. J., Lester, L., Zubrick, S. R., Ng, M., & Christian, H. E. (2021). The relationship

between dog ownership, dog play, family dog walking, and pre-schooler social-

emotional development: findings from the PLAYCE observational study. Pediatric

Research. Pediatric Research, 2021-03, Vol.89 (4), 1013-1019.