Greg Bales

A Brief Note on Writing

The other day I mentioned that I was writing a version of this article for a sixth-grade audience, but it would be more accurate to say I was writing a new essay that tells the same story. Not adapted from Henig’s reporting, really, but inspired by it. I just finished the first draft.

On the one hand, I had to describe the research Henig reports on, identify one or two conclusions from it, and introduce what connections that research reveals between the brain and behavior. So I kept the sentences short and the vocabulary simple; for difficult words, I took special care to give readers context clues they could use to interpret them. Finally, to try giving readers something to relate to, I fictionalized the voice—the best way I could think, short of stealing wholesale from Henig, to introduce a sympathetic character who makes the research seem real. With all that, I think I nailed the science pretty well.

How well does it work for sixth graders? I can say that knowing few tweens and having no previous experience writing for them made the entire process like walking blindfolded onto the 7½ floor of a strange building to look for a tunnel to John Malkovich’s head. The thing’s being read now by people with more experience than I at judging how well it meets the audience. But, given previous evidence and Laura’s quip (in chat) that sixth graders “are kind of illiterate,” I suspect I’m way off.