Becky Johnson

64290 Stillwater Ave.

Brockton, MA 09268

May 20th, 2024

Dear Becky,

Becky! Long time no talk friend! I just wanted to write to see how you’ve been recently and
catch up? Have the kids been good? I’ve seen little James on Facebook and he’s growing up so
fast! Speaking of James, that’s also another thing I wanted to bring up with you. Do you
remember Christopher Somers from college? Well I saw him at Starbucks a few weeks ago and
he shared something so interesting with me that I think you would love to hear about. So there’s
this little research program he’s a part of, and it has something to do with music and children
who are on the spectrum. Apparently they study how these children react to different types of
music and it can even help them communicate when they’re not even speaking! I know right! It’s
so crazy. I know you were talking about how James recently got diagnosed with, what did they
call it - ASD? Anyways, Chris was saying how it helps the kids use eye contact and
“conversation cadences” to help them learn how to have conversations with other people. Isn’t
that amazing! When he told me about it I immediately thought of your James and how you were
telling me he had trouble with that sort of thing. He said that their program is having trouble
finding participants in the study and If I know anyone to have them call him, so if you’re
interested in it you should give him a call! I feel like it might be really helpful for him, plus Chris
was telling me how the kids who are a part of this study get way better at talking a lot faster! We
definitely need to grab lunch soon and you can tell me all about it if you end up hitting him up.
I’ll talk to you soon!

Sincerely, Trish Thompson

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Sarah Gutierrez

Allison Bocchino

Writing 2

20 May 2024

Article to Letter: A Transition

When tasked with translating Ian Cross’s article "Music and Communication in Music

Psychology," the process was more challenging than anticipated. Genre translation requires not

only a deep understanding of both the genre of the article but also the genre you plan to translate

into as well. In this case, I chose to translate Cross’s academic article into a personal letter

written from the perspective of a potential new participant in one of the experiments mentioned

in the article. Translating Ian Cross’s article into a personal letter illuminates the particular ways

in which music can act as a communicative medium. Genre translations are a powerful tool that

allow for the shift from an academic stance to a more personal narrative helps the reader gain a

better understanding of the power of perspective.

Ian Cross’s “Music and Communication in Music Psychology` was primarily packaged as

an academic journal aiming to comment on the connection between music and language, and

how the two intertwine in relation to the cognitive sciences. Cross’s report was written in an

academic context to be strictly informative and clearly convey its contents to the audience. The

article follows a structured format, which includes the “abstract introduction”, literature review,

strategy, results and discussion, and finally the conclusion. The article’s structure reflects its

purpose of addressing a certain discourse community, namely being researchers or students of

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ethnomusicology and those studying the connection between music and cognition. In writing an

academic research article, the choices made by the writer are crucial to the audience's

understanding of the material. The technical and professional jargon of Cross’s article reflects the

need to accurately relay research findings. Additionally, the article includes citations that are

relevant to the research which allows the reader to see how Cross’s work relates to existing

studies. These citations are helpful in establishing Cross’s credibility, as he references several

reputable researchers from the community of music psychology such as Sloboda, Gabrielesson,

Gold, Wigram, and Elefant. Finally, Cross employs an objective perspective and a formal tone

throughout the article, contributing to the professional and intellectual atmosphere. By adhering

to the writing conventions of an academic journal, Cross is able to navigate the ethnomusicology

discourse community, contributing to discussions of advancing the research involving music

therapy and the overlap between music and communication.

In terms of non-academic genre, a letter is one of the more casual forms of writing.

Though letters can serve different purposes and adopt various tones, they generally share the

same key components in regards to writing conventions. These universal conventions of a letter

can include a casual and conversational tone, personal experiences, and an emotional

perspective. In order to better understand the conventions of a personal letter, I examined

examples of letters I have written myself, which was integral to the writing process of this

translation. Drawing from my personal experience with writing letters to family and friends, as

well as reviewing letters I have received- birthday cards, letters from grandparents, Christmas

cards - I was able to identify these conventions. Incorporating a more personal touch to the

writing allows the reader to feel more connected to the author, which is especially important

when writing something as intimate as a letter to someone you know and love. The purpose of
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these conventions is to create a more relatable reading experience for the reader, fostering a

connection between reader and writer. In the context of translating Cross’s article into this genre,

the conventions of a letter help to personalize the research evidence provided by Cross in his

writing. This approach allows the reader to relate the insights to real-life situations, making the

article's main idea more accessible to a broader audience. When translating the article, adhering

to the conventions of the letter are important to maintaining audience connection while also

providing info about the research behind Cross’s main idea.

The process of translating Cross’s article into the format of a personal letter was quite a

difficult task. The length of the article, its heavy use of academic language, as well as its formal

tone, proved to make translating to a more casual tone and much shorter writing frame more

difficult. However I managed to accomplish this translation by identifying the most important

information within the article and only selecting a few key points in order to keep the letter at a

realistic length. With those selected points, I created a more personal story to build the

foundation of the letter. I shifted the tone from a formal and analytical one to conversational,

reflecting the style of speech one might use when sending a personal letter to a friend. Despite

significantly reducing the amount of information provided in the translation, I was still able to

maintain a narrative that conveyed the essence of the psychological impact of musical

communication. I preserved the stressed importance of communication through music while

modifying some of the conventions including formal tone, focus on data, and the emphasis on

evidence and research. Doing so required me to bend the rules of writing within the academic

genre, as these conventions are significantly less important when writing in a non-academic

genre. When making such a drastic change via translation, I believe it is acceptable to bend some
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of these rules in order to make an engaging piece of writing that will still convey much of the

information from the original article.

Translating Cross’s article required me to balance the integrity of the research article as

well as the needs of a more casual audience when translating. One of my main concerns was how

to convey the complex ideas of the article in a conversational tone without the original meaning

getting lost. Drawing on ideas from Mike Bunn’s “How to Read Like a Writer”, I focused on

analyzing Cross’s stylistic choices throughout his article to gain a better understanding on how

he effectively communicates these complex ideas. In the words of Bunn, “you work to identify

some of the choices the author made so that you can better understand how such choices might

arise in your own writing.”1 Using this idea, a main focus of mine was identifying the key

concepts in Cross’s work, and ensuring that I was able to preserve the original meaning during

the translation. Additionally, many principles from Jessie Szalay’s “Making Choices In Writing”

helped me to complete this translation as well. I applied the ideas of intentional and careful word

choice to ensure that the reader could connect with the author while also engaging in Cross’s

research. Szalay advises writers to “Get out the thesaurus, but don’t always go for the biggest

word. Instead, weigh your options and pick which one you like best and think is most effective.”2

Using these skills, I was able to create a personal connection with the reader through a more

casual tone, while still reflecting the scholarly context of Cross’s article originally.

After writing the translation of Ian Cross’s "Music and Communication in Music

Psychology” from an academic article to a personal letter, I gained a better understanding of the

power of perspective. The translation process highlighted the importance of understanding and

connecting with your audience via word choice and tone. By adopting the voice of someone’s

1
Bunn, Mike, 2011, “How to Read Like a Writer.” In Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, edited by
Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky, 71–73.
2
Szalay, Jessie, 2016, “Making Choices in Writing.” Pressbooks. August 1, 2016.
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real world experiences with the experiments of Cross’s article in my translation, I was able to

introduce a human element to the otherwise strictly academic writing. Doing so makes the

psychological aspects of Cross’s writing easier for the reader to grasp. This process not only

helped me to gain a better understanding of Cross’s research, but also emphasized the value of

the stylistic choices in writing for audience engagement. Ultimately, translating Cross’s article

into a non-academic genre allowed me to recognize the similarities and differences between

non-academic and academic writing and the importance of acknowledging both to be able to

make that transition.