WRT333

6: Popular Press
Given 11/12 | Due 12/1

Purpose: To translate specialized scientific or technical writing to make it accessible and attractive reading for a non-specialist audience, i.e., to readers outside of the discourse community.

You are two write two brief articles, approximately 2-3 pages each, double spaced to permit editing. These are to be on the identical topic, chosen from within your disciplinary major. Your topic should be technical, something that you talk about with professors or within classes, but not normally with friends or relatives. Your first (technical) article should be drawn from papers you may have recently read or written for another class: The intent is to have a sampling of technical writing to compare and contrast against your popular press translation.

To complete this assignment, submit these four components:

1. Original audience: Write 1-2 sentences describing the audience, or one reader who represents the audience, of the original article. For example, you might state that the passage is drawn from a paper you wrote for your animal nutrition course, where the primary reader was the professor or fellow students who were adroit in understanding the technical vocabulary and scientific style of the article.
2. Original technical article: Write (borrowing text to a great extent) a technical article of 2-3 pages, as above. If you are extracting from a larger paper, be certain to include an introductory paragraph, and perhaps a brief concluding paragraph so that the technical article stands on its own. State a problem, illustrating some of its technical dimensions, obstacles and possible paths toward solutions, etc. For example, a climatologist might describe "forcing functions stimulating increased hurricane intensity in terms of sea-surface temperature differential or energy dynamics of vertical air columns," which would make perfect sense to fellow students of atmospheric science. Your task here is to speak expediently and with a degree of sophistication to an audience of peers or superiors, demonstrating mastery of concepts and corresponding technical or scientific vocabulary. (This could be applied broadly to, for instance, principles of psychology as exhibited in public relations campaigns developed by PR majors, genre analysis in an advanced English class, etc.). You task is to communicate to your readers as technical expert to technical expert.
   Please note: there are just some technical topics that may be impossible to open up to a general audience; give a little thought as to whether your perfect technical article may be just a bit too perfect for unleashing on a general readership (would you talk about this topic with someone you were just beginning to date...and if you did, would you get a second date?).
3. Description of a reader from a general (popular press) audience: Write one paragraph, probably of 4-5 sentences, imagining as specifically as possible, or characterizing a real, living, specific reader to whom you will now write, opening up the material in the original article as though it were to be published in the popular press. Name and describe the person. List a few interests which would explain why this person would be reading the article. Address some of the concerns or expectations this reader might have before reading, and state your general purpose (i.e., what you expect to accomplish in writing, or, more specifically, how this reader is expected to change as a result of having read your article). You should clarify, for example, that your reader is an intelligent adult who is not familiar with the vocabulary or concepts of your technical paper. This is an important component and needs to be thought about and written carefully.
4. Popular Press Article: Having completed all of the above, rewrite the article for your general audience. Pay attention to your opening paragraph ("the lead"), where word choice and sentence progression are important devices to attract and retain readership. Choose words carefully, expanding text to provide parenthetical or sentence-length definitions of key concepts, but avoiding overuse of technical vocabulary if possible. You may need to use simile or metaphor or words that convey a strong visual connection to things your reader should be expected to be familiar with. You may, for example, compare a computer's CPU to a brain, although I hope you can do better than that in an effort to avoid tired cliches. Your purpose is to communicate to your readers as human being to human being.
   As you write your popular press piece, write—and submit—a first draft (i.e., one with content "about right" and initial style and readability check complete). Then, conduct a purpose analysis (discussed in class) on the completed popular press (general audience) version only, including the additional sentences describing the purpose of the paper (write this at the top of the article, setting it off in [square brackets], and a purpose statement for each paragraph (do not write purpose statements for individual sentences, but consider these purposes as you review the first draft). Finally, reorder and revise the paper, based on the purpose analysis, and submit a final draft. That is, there are three versions of the popular press article to be submitted here.

Again, please be aware that for purposes of this assignment, it may be expedient for you to begin with a section of a paper read or written for another disciplinary course. You are encouraged to do this, so as to limit your time.

Note due date, intended to allow time for an in-class editorial review and for return before the end of classes.