The Multi - Genre paper is very interesting -- you combine many genre's of writing, use one theme, concept, idea, etc (you use the same subject throughout), and create a unique paper.
I would really like to use this in my classroom, but first I need to try it myself and since I have plenty of time now, and won't by the time I start teaching, I think now is as good of a time as any to try it out. Who knows, maybe after writing one myself, my views will have changed and I won't think it's such a good idea after all.
I've never written one myself, but I've done a lot of reading about multi-genre papers and examples of multi-genre papers. Tom Romano wrote a book called "Blending Genre, Altering Style" where he explains the ups and downs of writing such a paper and gives plenty of examples- an interesting read for an English teacher-to be (or an English teacher for that matter).
Why am I so into this?
As a student who has written plenty of papers, I find it boring to write paper after paper in the same format. Block prose, paragraphs, 10 pages of the same genre, it gets monotonous. Completing one paper but with different genres sounds fun, edgy. Sure it'll take more work - you have to figure out which genres to use, how many, what section should be what genre, how to connect everything, so on and so forth, but challenges are fun.
Why would it be helpful to use this in a classroom?
Some people are better at writing poetry than block paragraphs. Some are better at journal style writing. Students can experiment with different types of writing and the student and the teacher can figure out what the student likes to write best. It includes some of the genres that students hate most without having to focus solely on it. (You could include a mini poetry unit, without having to fail a bunch of kids who just don't understand it.) You can include genres that students should be exposed to but aren't important enough to focus on; like advertisements, news articles, memos, business letters, etc. It'll keep the students interested. It's different, it's versatile, each student can cater it to what they enjoy best within writing. Of course, there are rules, and as a teacher, you can set certain parameters, but it is really flexible.
I have a few projects that I'm working on right now, but hopefully I'll be able to write a multi-genre paper before I graduate college, and hopefully I'll enjoy writing it as much as I enjoy the idea of it.
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