PB3A: Dr. Seuss and Your Mom

The scholarly article I am going to transform for my WP3 is called "An Examination of Risky Behaviors and Motivations for Alcohol Use in a College Sample." The two different genre's that I'd like to translate it into are as follows: For the younger audience, I will translate it into a format similar to that of a children's book by the famous author Dr. Seuss, and for the older audience I will rewrite it in the form of a newspaper.  The scholarly article I've chosen is examining an issue that is unimportant to children and is often misunderstood by the older generations. Therefore, beginning with the latter, I'd like to present it as an analysis of the reasons why students participate and of all of the psychological effects and social influences that are involved within the topic. It will be written in columns, strictly black and white writing with a two photos, one of the stereotypical view and another with a more realistic view. These photos would be followed by a brief description of each and then a detailed comparison/contrasting of the two. As for the Dr. Seuss version, I'd like to shape this article into a poem/rhyme that makes a teaches a lesson or moral discouraging drinking in their futures. When books appeal to children, often times the goal is to teach them something or instill an idea that will be important to them later in life. I will use the scholarly authors' analyses in a simplified way and mold it to fit the genre of a Dr. Seuss book. I will also include caricature versions of the diagrams in the article and add some animals or creatures to make it more fitting for the children's book.
The article I chose made it easy to separate my translations into different segments to break up the monotony of a scholarly article, so I will use those to separate each idea. The main purpose of my Dr. Seuss book will be to show children the effects of alcohol in a child-friendly way and teach them why to avoid drinking when they get older. The purpose of my newspaper article will be to educate the older generations on the pressures young adults face when coming into contact with alcohol and on how to better prepare their young ones for the different situations they will encounter when they themselves attend college. This will be more of an article geared towards parents.
Some moves I can make are using simplified language in both pieces, but each tailored toward its own audience. In the Dr. Seuss book I will have to change the terminology to words that will make sense to kids around the ages of 5-7, so this will most likely be my biggest challenge. As for the newspaper, I will be using different tones and words with specific connotation to encourage the feeling of empathy from my readers. In this way I am attempting to receive a very specific response from the readers and appealing to the protective parent.

These are only a few of my ideas and I am not completely sure that they are all acceptable but I believe that I am off to a good start in the right direction.

Journal Q&A

1. What did you think about yesterday's peer reader/review sesh? Better/worse/same as the old "hard copy" one? Explain!

A: I personally felt more productive simply for the fact that I could type my notes which goes quicker than usual. Had I only had a pencil and paper to do this review with, it would have gone much slower and I would have been unable to give as much detailed feedback as I did. All that being said, I don't think it was better for every kind of class, because when I was typing up notes, Senor De Piero didn't like it much and seemed to feel I wasn't paying attention, so maybe it's not so good for him.

2. How did WP2 go? Happy with? Not happy with? Why?

A: I was really happy with my structure this time around. I felt like there was a lot more flow to my paper than the previous WP. I also felt more confident in the points where I applied my own analysis as well as the places where I cited other sources. It was, I'm hoping, a pretty big improvement.

3. Which comments were most helpful to you? Why?

A: There were lots of very helpful comments about the structure of my intro and first body paragraph, which I have always had trouble with, so it was really helpful to see it from another persons perspective. I also received some positive feedback on the ways in which I inserted our readings and my sources into my piece, so it is good to see that I'm improving there. Also just the small, nit-picky comments really help me because I myself am that way when I read, so having someone else provide that type of feedback benefited me immensely.