Selena Lauria

Wilson Writing 2

Writing Project Three: Translating Academic Writing

The primary source I translated is Stanley J. Barans academic

article, How TV and Film Portrayals Affect Sexual Satisfaction in
College Students. Baran discusses his research about if and how
media portrayals of sexual behavior impact the sexual socialization
and satisfaction of college students. He explores whether or not
media characters serve as models, and create expectations, for
sexual activity and characteristics. Baran states various
conclusions, that have accumulated over years of research. He
references information from other academic journals to form the
overall argument that media depictions do, in fact, prove to
influence the contentment with coital experiencesin both
negative and positive ways.
Barans article is an informative, research-based essay. Given
that he is an associate professor at Cleveland State University in
the Department of Communication, the assumed discourse
community is comprised of scholars, who are either in the same

academic discipline or interested in the specific topic. While the

subject would likely interest college students, the scientific
approach and sophisticated writing doesnt appeal greatly to them.
I feel that the information is important for this new audience to
understand because it applies directly to them and may help them
understand some the issues that they encounter while exploring
their sexuality in college. In my genre translation I intended to
preserve Barans purpose of educating readers while transforming
the way the content is presented so that it would be more likely to
appeal to the average student in college. In my experience,
students are more inclined to read something that has an enticing
cover and title, is brief and to the point, and includes plenty of
pictures and anecdotes.
The article I created is meant to be from a Cosmopolitan
magazine.
It is aesthetically pleasing, due to my use of a color scheme and
image balance. It includes fabricated personal reflections about
how media affected peoples attitudes toward, and satisfaction
with, a variety of sexual encounters. The conversational voice
allows the text to be approachable and familiar, as if a friend were
passing along the information. Cosmopolitan attracts a particular

audience, adolescent girls that want to explore mature information

about anything sex-related.
My rendition of the primary source is meant to expand the
awareness about the ways in which our millennial generation is
unconsciously impacted by our heavy exposure to mediano one
should feel like their attitudes, behavior and experiences arent
meeting a socially constructed standard. The mass media has
proved to be a source of comparisonindividuals set unrealistic
expectations about the way their body should look and how they
should act in sexual situations. Although, the media can also be a
positive influence for adolescence who typically havent been
taught in school about a wide range of sexual orientations and
behaviors. Some people have reported that tv and film can serve as
a form of guidance for them. With all this in mind, I need to
construct my translation in a way that emphasized this dichotomy
without expressing that one finding is more prevalent. I chose to
divide the finding into two separate pages that are identical in
structure but each have text that is representative of the many
examples of media impact on sexual socialization and attitudes that
have been found by a group of scholars.

Ultimately, the purpose of this translation is to reveal that the

way information is presented can influence the likelihood of it being
received by the targeted audience. Although my genre translation
seems to target adolescent girls more than males, I made the
assumption that if the information can reach a portion of this
discourse community than itll metastasize to the other portion as
well. Thus, this Cosmopolitan-inspired article will allow for more
adolescents to learn about how TV and film can affect their sexual
socialization and satisfaction than will the original academic article.