Nai: Midterm Portfolio – #2 Plain Language

The Project

classwork translation of “A Tree Grows In Brooklyn.”: 

Original Version:

You took a walk on a Sunday afternoon and came to a nice neighborhood, very refined. You saw a small one of these trees through the iron gate leading to someone’s yard and you knew that soon that section of Brooklyn would get to be a tenement district. The tree knew. It came there first. Afterwards, poor foreigners seeped in and the quiet old brownstone houses were hacked up into flats, feather beds were pushed out on the window sills to air and the Tree of Heaven flourished. That was the kind of tree it was. It liked poor people.

That was the kind of tree in Francie’s yard. Its umbrellas curled over, around and under her third-floor fire escape. An eleven-year-old girl sitting on this fire escape could imagine that she was living in a tree. That’s what Francie imagined every Saturday afternoon in summer.

Plain Language Version:

You took a walk on a Sunday afternoon and you will find a fancy neighborhood. Through an iron gate that leads into someone’s backyard, you can spot a small tree. This tree stands tall as the area around it changes. The tree knows that this part of Brooklyn will be seeing buildings become crowded with people. Quiet brownstone houses were split into smaller apartments. Feather bed were pushed and hanging out of windows. This tree of Heaven thrived. This tree liked being around poor people.

This same kind of tree grew in Francie’s backyard. The tree curled around her third-floor escape. An 11-year-old girl could sit on the fire escape and imagine living in a tree. This is what Francie imagined every Saturday afternoon during the summer time.

Project Description 

For this assignment I did a plain language translation of “A tree grows in Brooklyn” and I did the same for an excerpt of this assigned to me in my psychology course:  Character strengths and virtues : a handbook and classification.  

Documentation 

Homework assignment descriptions from another class in plain language: 

Plain Language: 

Teachers want to see a love of learning in their students. Parents want to help increase more love of learning in their children. Therapists support a love of learning in their clients. Employers want to help foster a love of learning in their workers. The love of learning has not been a focus of research. Still, the love of learning is a skill that researchers and other people find important. It is often discussed with ideas like motivation, value, and deep interests.

Researchers have found a way to measure motivation. It separates intrinsic motivation from extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is doing something because you enjoy it. One example of intrinsic motivation is feeling curious. Another example is enjoying the challenge an activity gives you. Extrinsic motivation is doing something for an outside reason like a prize.

VS

Original

“love of learning is a strength that teachers would like to see in their students, that parents want to encourage in their children, that therapists support in their clients and that employers try to foster in their employees. In fact, love of learning is a strength to which researchers and the lay public seem able to point with ease, even though it has not been the specific focus of a research literature. Instead, love of learning has been discussed in relation to major conceptual dimensions of a number of constructs, including motivational orientation, competence, value and well-developed interest.”

“Several researchers have developed measures of general motivational orientation that distinguish between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. These measures focus on why someone engages in activities, with items that reflect autotelic reasons (e.g: because they provide challenge, satisfy curiosity, and create interest and enjoyment) used to identify an intrinsic motivational orientation.”

Reflection Questions

What is the theme of the work?

The theme of this piece is about making this excerpt from a book I was assigned in one of my psychology classes- be more digestible particularly for people with cognitive disabilities

How is that theme particularly expressed through the modality of the week?

Through short sentences, maintaining an active voice and omitting unnecessary words in this piece I was able to convey a clearer version of this excerpt.

Which elements of the work are beautifully/wonderfully/perfectly expressed through the modality?

The important information of this piece was respected and only the most unnecessary words (filler words) were taken away

Which elements are lost or inexpressible through the modality of the week?

Given the book’s genre- psychology – a lot of important terminology (maybe no so much in the excerpt I chose here) can be lost when transforming it to plain language

Who does this project exclude? Who would not be able to interact with this work? Who is this modality not accessible for?

This piece excludes people who are deaf or hard of hearing as it only considers diction and not other features like captions.

Now that you’ve identified who is excluded, what is one way you could remix this piece to include another population? (You don’t have to make this part, but think about it and write about it).

One way to remix this piece is to make sure it’s screen reader friendly by making sure it consists of the appropriate alt text for any accompanying images and has descriptive headings. Also, the implementation of captions to the text can also broaden this piece’s reach

Additional Modality (if applicable) 

What modality did you apply? 

How did you decide on this modality?

What does the beholder gain from this additional modality? Why? 

Does the beholder lose anything from this modality? What? 

Show documentation of this modality, and describe it if it’s not accessible on a screen (ie, if it’s tactile if it’s a scent)