English 380

Fulfilled: Honors Course

Writing a paper is one thing, but writing for a professional audience and real world stakes is whole new realm of intimidating or at least it was. During my course in Children’s Literature, I focused on writing an article for a journal on adaptations. Given the short time frame of only a few months, the tension ran high; however, the challenge gave me the opportunity to expand upon and connect many different areas of study. In preparation for my six month study abroad in Buenos Aires Argentina I had already committed myself to studying and practicing my Spanish, but these exercises lacked a factor of motivation and could become tedious and boring. Then I took the next logical step combining my two projects into a study of my childhood favorite Magic Treehouse series across English to Spanish. The pressure from deadlines and real world consequences was more than enough motivation to keep up my personal Spanish studies while exploring a fondly nostalgic topic kept me focussed and ensured the enjoyment of the process.

Of course with any project of such ambition and narrow scope, everything was not always seamless or even well accepted. In reaching out to colleagues and experts, I found quite a number of individuals who not only questioned my interest, but found the entire project rather insignificant and underwhelming. One even plainly asked,”Wait, why is this important again?” without even allowing me to finish my project’s objective. Having my motivations and rationale questioned was new territory, but with a little encouragement from my professor and a lot of personal passion for the topic a twelve page paper and presentation paper emerged from the organized chaos of my research. While I may not be writing many papers like this one for my future career, I know that I will be challenged and my methods of teaching are likely to be questioned. Instead of becoming defensive or overwhelmed with doubt, I have built up the skills to put criticism to positive use and provide evidence for my choices. These skills will definitely come in handy when I am answering to administrators, my fellow educators, parents and my students. I can be confident knowing that I have the ability to explain and support my ideas when necessary.

Adapted in Translation was created by Taylor Bauer November 14th, 2017. The poster aptly summarizes my findings and analysis of the Magic Tree House series between the original English and Spanish translation.