Demonstration

Effective Research Writing and the Multigenre Approach 

Target Audience

            Any grade level and any content area that deals with research.

Introduction

            This year I was placed in charge of a classroom professionally for the first time. We did a wealth of writing assignments with varying levels of success and failure, and finally the time came to cover research. I taught a research unit that culminated in the writing of an informative essay first because I felt it was most important, but I felt that the papers turned in were inadequate. Basically what I received was one hundred barely paraphrased websites. I realized this was my fault because the scope of my assignment invited this activity. I was disappointed, but I knew of a different way to tackle such assignments.

            I first encounted Tom Romano’s book Blending Genre, Altering Style while in college. I thought his multigenre approach to writing projects was refreshing. In his book Romano describes a multigenre paper as “composed of many genres and subgenres, each piece self-contained, making a point of its own, yet connected by theme or topic” (x-xi). When this approach is applied to the research paper, the result is a quilt-like document that explores the topic not just through expository writing but through poems, fiction, images, dialogue, and any other style the writer can produce.

            When I tried the research assignment again a few weeks later with my 8th graders, I had them focus their end product on the multigenre format. I found that they were interacting with their topics in a much more meaningful manner than when we did the expository assignment. I felt that they had not necessarily suddenly read and understood their sources better, but in approaching them through the lens of creative writing they were more inclined to mix facts with their opinion and interpretation. They produced documents that were their own rather than just echoing words of the original author. These papers were still filled with just as many facts, but I got the impression that the students were thinking about the facts on a deeper level rather than just briefly summarizing them and moving on.

Rationale

            Providing this writing experience to students enables them to interact with the information they research. Students can’t fall back on merely copying the information from the source onto their paper. They have to interpret the information and present it in a new and different format. This enables students to take factual information and make it their own. Greirson writes in her article on the multigenre research assignment that “the research demands rigor, the results are interesting, and the quality of writing is much truer in its feel” (54). In my opinion, this approach to research can be applied across the curriculum to add variety, interest, and authenticity to students’ writing.

Narrative

            I want to begin my demonstration with a brief discussion of what a multigenre paper looks like and what it contains. I will use excerpts from Jodie Kelly’s multigenre paper “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: A Trip Down the Yellowbrick Road” from the Miami University of Ohio web page to illustrate the essential pieces of a multigenre paper laid out in Romano’s book.

            Parts of a Multigenre Paper

I.                   Opener – an introduction (preface, foreword, etc) designed give the reader the background information they require to understand the paper. According to Romano, “because multigenre papers are so unconventional, it is crucial that their authors ground readers immediately, orient them to the terrain, establish the central tension” (39).

II.                Genres – pieces of writing about the researched theme or topic of the paper. These can be in any style. They are organized in a meaningful way and may be connected by a narrative frame, quotes, photographs, artwork, or any other structure.

III.             End notes – a series of annotations about each piece in the paper. These end notes explicate what the writer was trying to accomplish with each genre piece. They can explain what factual information is included from the research, which details are imagined or invented, and what the author hopes a reader takes away from each piece.

I will then divide the demonstration participants into small groups, each with handout that describes one genre writing activity. We will then read an encyclopedia article as a reference text. Each group will craft a piece based on the information in the article. I will share a short expository piece based on the article. Then each group will share their creative piece. I hope this activity will illuminate the wealth of responses available to single piece of researched information. I also hope this activity will point out the value that can be had by reacting to researched information through creative as opposed to expository writing.

Description of Writing Experience

            When I taught the multigenre research paper in my classes, students had previously selected topics and resources. Students had read their sources and taken notes on what they felt were the most important or relevant facts.

            After the research period, I would introduce the students to genres through writing mini-lessons featuring discussion and examples. Students then created an example of each genre discussed. The last time I taught this assignment with 8^th graders, we did two genre assignments a day for five days. Students were then asked to choose a minimum of five pieces that they felt represented their best work or explored a theme in their research that they wanted their papers to focus on. Students revised their selected pieces into one cohesive paper, wrote an introduction for the entire paper and end notes for each piece, and included a bibliography of their resources.

Conclusions and Next Steps

            This writing project is adaptable to any classroom, age level, or curriculum that has students working on expository papers based on texts. If the instructor feels uncomfortable teaching writing in different genres, Romano’s Blending Genre, Altering Style has many useful chapters on different styles of writing. The Internet can, of course, be a valuable tool for genre writing ideas. The address of one such resource, Peter Kittle’s handout on genre responses, can be found in the Additional Resources section below. Once the instructor is comfortable in presenting the genre writing, molding their previous research curriculum into the multigenre format should be fairly straight forward.

Bibliography

1. Grierson, Sirpa T. “Circling Through Text: Teaching Research Through Multigenre Writing.” English Journal Sept (1999): 51-55. 18 June 2007 <http://www.ncte.org>.

2. Romano, Tom. Blending Genre, Altering Style: Writing Multigenre Papers. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 2000.

Additional Resources

Lenoir, W. David. “The Multigenre Warning Label.” English Journal Nov (2002): 99-101. 19 June 2007 <http://www.ncte.org.>
Lenoir writes about common pitfalls with using the multigenre approach and how to avoid them to ensure that student writing remains effective. 

Kelly, Jodie. “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: a Trip Down the Yellow Brick Road.” 26 Apr. 2001. 3 July 2007 <http://www.users.muohio.edu/romanots/pdf/wizardofoz.pdf.>

This is an excellent example of a multigenre research paper. It includes all of the parts discussed in this demo plus a variety of information about the film The Wizard of Oz explored in a wealth of genres. 

 

Kittle, Peter. “English 101: Genre Responses.” California State University, Chico. 3 July 2007 <http://www.csuchico.edu/~pkittle/101/genres.html.>

Kittle offers a discussion of what a writing genre is and what a writing genre might look like. He also provides lists of possible writing genres and genre response activities.