Learning Module 11Definitions and Perspectives about the Multigenre Essay

EDLL 5341/EDLL 5344March 31, 2014

Overview:• The Focus for this week’s learning module is to

develop your understanding of the multigenre essay and help you get off to a solid start on this project. To this end, I would like you to start this journey by examining definitions and different perspectives about the multigenre essay. You have approximately one month to complete this assignment. The sooner you identify a topic, the better for you! During the next few weeks of our course, I will focus your attention on the theories and techniques for completing this project.

• Due Date for the Multigenre Essay is April 25th

What is Multigenre Writing?

http://writing.colostate.edu/gallery/multigenre/introduction.htm

Tom Romano’s Website

http://www.users.muohio.edu/romanots/

Cognitive Vs. Emotional Writing/Narrative Thinking From

Blending Genre/Altering Style“In most of my writing the cognitive and the emotional are entwined. This happens because in whatever I write, I seek a place for narrative thinking. More than I am interested in reflecting on or abstracting from experience, I am interested in rendering it so that readers live the page. When done well, Tom Newkirk (1997) contends, such rendering ‘penetrates’ experience (p. 95), taking readers inside a present moment, present because narrative thinking lets us experience the writing, a little like watching a compelling movie or Count Basie presiding above the rumpus or Liz Irish step dancing” (p. 24).

Why Study Multigenre Writing as a Part of Content Area Literacy?

• Multigenre writing is a unique tool for teaching students to think about content matter. It involves complex levels of synthesis and analysis as well as representation and communication.

• Disciplinary-focused literacy entails multiple genres and modalities of text and the Discourses associated with comprehending and creating such texts (e.g., symbols, graphs, pictures, music). Multigenre writing is a way to bring multiple types of texts together with print-based texts and in so doing forge a bridge between disciplinary-driven forms of literacy and traditional print-based definitions and expectations of literacy.

Grammar A and Grammar B• Compare the two samples of writing over

Count Basie on page 18 and page 20.

• What is distinctive about the style of each of these pieces?

• Which one is emblematic of a “grammar A” (traditional) style and which one is emblematic of a “grammar B” (alternate) style?

Requirements of the Multigenre Essay

Paper should be at least 5-7 pages in length Include a minimum of five different genres of

writing Refer to at least five different, research-based

references Include an introductory letter to readers Include documentation of referenced material

within the paper (i.e., in-text citations) Include a reference page for sources Include an end notes page that lists the sources

for each genre of writing

The Book that Inspired Tom Romano to teach Multigenre Writing: The Collected Works of Billy the

Kid• “Out of his inquiry into Billy the Kid, Ondaatje

created a complex, multilayered, multivoiced blend of genres, each revealing information about his topic, each self-contained, making a point of its own, unconnected to other genres by conventional transitional devices . . . All of these genre snapshots combine to re-create part of the factual world of Billy the Kid but also the imaginative world of dramatic scenes . . .Factual and emotional. Objective and subjective. Real and imagined” (p. 4).

Before you Begin Writing:

1. Read Excerpt from The Collected Works of Billy the Kid by Michael Ondaatje.

2. Read “Cosmetic Clips” on page 7 in Blending Genre, Altering Style. (Please note this is not a research example of multigenre writing; it is a personal narrative.)

3. Read sample multigenre essays written by a high school student and a former EDLL 5341 student.

4. Brainstorm a list of possible topics for your paper.5. Brainstorm a list of possible genres you could use in

your paper.

Reminder:Read Chapters 5-8 in Blending Genre, Altering Style and select a topic for your multigenre essay for our next class