Bobby Nguyen

Writing 2, Alanna Bartolini

__________________

Finding my Way in

For my writing project, I went on an original route and crafted a song that was inspired
by my peer-reviewed article. The article I chose was “Finding Your Way In” by Collin Craig and
Steven Lessner. The reason as to why I chose this was because of the fact that I, as a reader and
writer, also have strong views exhibited in this essay on how a writer should be allowed to share
their creativity and failures. Using “Finding Your Way In,” I was able to create a song parody
that put the information developed by the original authors in a different perspective. By using the
tactics and questions posed by Mike Bunn in his piece, “Reading Like a Writer,” I spent time
analyzing Lessner’s and Craig’s writing and their styles in order to make sure that I was really
hitting all the aspects that the original translation had hit effectively, but in my own translation.1
The song that I used for this project was “Regulate,” which was produced in 1994 by
songwriters Warren G and Nate Dogg. Though it was very difficult to come up with a way to do
this at first due to the disparities across pieces, I found it very entertaining and worthwhile
putting the work and effort into creating a translation that I would be proud of. When deciding to
take this route with my translation, I was hesitant at first due to the fact that both pieces were
significantly different in “styles.”. For example, “Finding Your Way In” was an informative
essay that was professional in its own manner while “Regulate” was a street hip-hop song crafted
for old school teens cruising the streets, looking for some “hoes.” However, I believe this was
what really pushed me to take on the task due to its difficulty and my thoughts revolving around
how it’d be entertaining for my audience as a whole. At the end of this project, I definitely felt
like it was successful, and for good reason.
Figuring out how to translate it into the piece it is was very difficult because my
translation needed to adhere to the tempo and cadence of “Regulate” while also keeping that
academic emphasis in mind. At first, I couldn’t really figure out a beginning so I decided to just
sit and write down my ideas. When it came to the peer-review article that I was using by Craig
and Lessner, their ideas were very organized and flowed with little error. I decided that in order
to achieve an organization that resembled that of the original piece, I was going to have to create
a story where the pacing and formation of events flowed just as neatly as the ideas did in
“Finding Your Way In.” That’s why I decided to have my song parody in a story format as I told
the tale of a writer who was searching for his own creativity.

1
These aspects include, but were not limited to, “how did the author use this evidence to support his
claims?”, “Who is the intended audience?”, “What is the author’s purpose?,” and “How does the author
move from one idea to the next?”
 Then it was time to find out how I was going to translate it since I knew that stories came
in many shapes and forms. I decided to stick to a musical piece in order to do something that I’d
actually enjoy instead of translating it into another genre that I’d dread doing. Choosing the song
came with ease as I scrolled through my playlist until I stumbled upon “Regulate.” While
listening to this rhythmic flow and how the narrator told a story about himself through his verses
and versatile vocabulary, I knew this was a perfect choice.
The next challenge was to figure out how I was going to change an old-school rap song
into a rap song about a creative writer finding his groove. In the spirit of the original writers, I
decided to keep the same rhythmic flow while changing the verses and the overall story. Due to
the original verses of “Regulate” already being in an organized format that allowed me to flow
from example to example, I didn’t have to change the size of the verses or the number of the
verses. Now knowing where I was going and how I was going to go about crafting my piece, I
started repeating the instrumental back and forth, back and forth.
While repeating the instrumentals back and forth, I used the notes that I had taken down
about the main points regarding the original article I was translating. Using these notes, I started
inserting my own thoughts and ideas as if I was the writer in the chair, discovering and playing
with my own creativity. Playing the role of someone in an entirely different environment and
circumstance made it incredibly easier for me to think of the verses and lines, which is
something I learned from Kerry Dirk’s “Navigating Genres.” While following the beat and
overall storytelling format of the original song, I was able to create lines that both matched in
syllable count and flowed close (if not exactly) to what the lines originally were. For example,
one of my verses went,

With a verse like this, I was able to keep the original song’s pacing, beat, and rhythm, but with a
changed story and overall goal in the verse. The story behind this verse, for example, was that
the creative writer was jumping into his writing without hesitation. He had finally acknowledged
that making mistakes was part of the process so “screw it” and the last line ends off the verse by
transitioning into the next one with the line “...so he said these steps.”2 By organizing verses by
topic while also making the topics flow seamlessly (as if it were an essay), I was able to follow
the essay structure of Lessner and Craig’s article by highlighting their points regarding multiple
forms of reading, free-writing, outlining and/or organizing, and verbal discussion.
From my point of view as well as my friends’ who I had presented this to, it was a
widespread acknowledgement that my translation had brought the original article to life. When
Lessner and Craig first wrote, “Finding Your Way In,” I really did like what they were trying to
do and the route that they were taking. However, I felt like this article might not be as
entertaining to read nowadays because it was over a decade after the article was first published.
Today, a large number of college students’ worlds all revolve around media; one popular form of
it being music. Music speaks to the hearts and souls of many. Individuals have learned to
decipher the true meaning behind lyrics and the storytelling of musical artists which is why I
decided to translate this original article that I found compelling, into a music piece that is
timeless and recognizable by many generations of people. Like Kerry Dirk said in “Navigating
Genres,” it is very important to notice the environment you are presenting in as a writer (Dirk,
2010). Filled with a classroom full of millennials such as myself as well as a young teacher who
doesn’t seem at all behind on the trends and lifestyle, I decided to take this route. Additionally,
choosing this as a translation method made it easier for fellow students to envision themselves in
the same position as I was telling the story of a typical writer attempting to wrap themselves
around the trial-and-error process.
After crafting the song translation for the original article, my next task was to create a
“genius lyrics” that chronicled why I decided to incorporate those lines, and what each line
meant in correspondence with the original article. By doing something “small” like this, it
allowed readers to dive into my lyrics on a deeper level in order to understand my thought
process and how I had wanted to present the information myself. I understood how difficult it is
for individuals to follow every single line during its performance which is why I felt a recap like
this was needed. Additionally, by recapping, I was able to explain why I had chosen to
incorporate lines that made my work unique, yet similar to the original project such as the
incorporation of the University of California - Santa Barbara as well as the inclusion of
modern-day jokes and phrases. Additionally, this part of my writing project gave me space to
elaborate on aspects of my parody. An example of this can be seen by the explanations of lyrics
given such as:

2
“These steps” refer to the tactics used by Lessner and Craig in their article as they informed first-year
college writers on how they could find their inspiration towards building a paper.
___________________________________________________________________________

Upon completion of my WP#1 past the revisions, I feel like this project definitely taught
me a lot about where my writing skills lie. Coming into Writing 2, I would’ve never expected
that I’d be able to submerge myself in an assignment like this, and I’m very grateful that I was
able to experience this class. Aside from my creation, it was great to hear insight from my peers
and from my educator, Ms.Bartolini. One of the concepts that was brought up the most was
organization which I have always had trouble with. However, in both this project and the one
following, I believe I did the best I could with my revisions upon all the interviews and critiques.
Using the insight, I was able to fix things here and there that would lead to a successful project
creation that exemplifies who I am as a student.
In conclusion, I heavily enjoyed translating my article and don’t regret choosing the
article as well as the style of the genre I chose to translate it into. In terms of enjoyment, I feel
like I chose a genre that was both entertaining for readers and for myself as the creator. This was
because I was able to test my creativity and knowledge in order to craft a project that I would be
proud of. Academically, this process of converting texts across genres while keeping the original
composition and principles became an insightful writing skill and exposed me to many tools that
I can use in the future as a reader and writer. By having to infer Craig and Lessner’s piece more
directly and being an active reader rather than a passive one, I learned that different writers have
different methods and strategies to render their points across varied audiences. Additionally, I
learned that there’s never a right or wrong way to present information as long as you, as a writer,
can have full faith that your writing will get across to the certain audience you’re releasing it to.
Whether it be by using different rhetorical strategies or different styles of the genre, this project
and the critique I received showed me that there is always room to improve, innovate, and
invent!

_____________
Citations:

Bunn, Mike. “How to Read like A Writer - WAC Clearinghouse.” Reading like a Writer,
2011, https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/books/writingspaces2/bunn--how-to-read.pdf.

Dirk, Kerry. “Navigating Genres - WAC Clearinghouse.” Navigating Genres, 2010,

https://wac.colostate.edu/books/writingspaces1/dirk--navigating-genres.pdf.

Lessner, Steven, and Collin Craig. “‘Finding Your Way in’: Invention as Inquiry Based
Learning ...” Finding Your Way In, 2010,
https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/books/writingspaces1/lessner-and-craig--finding-your-way-i
n.pdf.