Blending Genre, Altering Style : Writing Multigenre Papers [Paperback]

Tom Romano (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0867094788 | ISBN-13: 978-0867094787 | Publication Date: March 1, 2000 0

For Tom Romano, the multigenre paper is much more than a writing assignment. It is a multilayered, multivoiced literary experience. Genres of narrative thinking require writers to make an imaginative leap, melding the factual with the imaginative. Writers can't just tell. They must show. They must make their topics palpable. They must penetrate experience. Multigenre papers enable their authors to do that.

Blending Genre, Altering Style is the first book to address the practicalities of helping students compose multigenre papers. Romano discusses genres, subgenres, writing strategies, and stylistic maneuvers that students can use in their own multigenre papers. Each idea is supported with actual student writing, including five full-length multigenre papers that demonstrate the possibilities of a multigenre approach to writing. There are also discussions of writing poetry, fiction, and dialogue, in which readers will discover how students can create genres out of indelible moments, crucial processes, and important matters in the lives of the subject under inquiry. One chapter alone is devoted to helping writers create unity and coherence in their papers.

Imbued with Romano's passion for teaching, Blending Genre, Altering Style is an invaluable reference for any inservice or preservice English language arts teacher. The only prerequisite is a desire to help students write.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“I find Romano's multigenre approach to research inspiring.”–The Quartlery

About the Author

Tom Romano is the author of several bestselling books with Heinemann, including Clearing the Way (1987); Writing with Passion (1995); Blending Genre, Altering Style (2000); and Crafting Authentic Voice (2004). His latest is Zigzag (2008), a memoir of his teaching and learning lives. Tom has taught high school and college students for more than thirty years, and he currently teaches writing and language arts methods in the department of teacher education at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio . In summer he often teaches in the New Hampshire Literacy Institutes at the University of New Hampshire .

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Boynton/Cook (March 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0867094788
• ISBN-13: 978-0867094787
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #140,489 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great writing reference, August 15, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Blending Genre, Altering Style : Writing Multigenre Papers (Paperback)

This latest book by Romano provides yet another way to incorporate writing into the classroom. He briefly touched upon the mulit-genre paper in his Writing with Passion book, but fully expands the ideas in this book. This book is helpful for those who have not used the mulit-genre paper. (Sharon Draper's Tears of a Tiger is a great example of a multi-genre book.) Included in the back of the book is a reference list of teachers who teach the multi-genre paper with ways to get in touch with those teachers. If you are looking for a way to get your students thinking while they're writing, get this book. You can't go wrong with the examples that are included or the many contacts provided.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Teachers and Writers Guide, August 2, 2002

By 

Julie L. Andrews (Prather, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blending Genre, Altering Style : Writing Multigenre Papers (Paperback)

This book gives many examples of an emerging style of writing, the blended genre book. Originally designed for classroom teachers, this book explores the concept of writing a collection of short pieces on a related theme or topic, and allowing the subject matter of each piece to determine the appropriate genre of presentation for the material. The book offers many examples of college level work that are appropriate for high school Students. The elementary and middle school examples are average or low-level responses that may or may not encourage your students to do their best work. I used this book successfully with my seniors last year on a final project that resulted from a preliminary research assignment as an alternative to a second major research paper for the year.

For authors that are interested in writing in this style, it explains the concept of the multigenre text and refers repeatedly to Michael Ondjatte's work "The Life and Times of Billy the Kid." If you can find this book, it is a great example of a Multigenre work.

The one area that is less than five star quality is the explanation given for the concept of "the repetend." Tom Romano's explanation of the repetend, or the unifying element that ties all of the separate genre pieces together, is slippery at best. Romano's explanation does not make this concept any clearer for the writer or the teacher.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Concept, October 5, 2005

By 

Alison Shallow (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blending Genre, Altering Style : Writing Multigenre Papers (Paperback)

I love this book and have decided to base my Masters Project on this concept. Tom Romano gives such clear and concise examples and information that this book is such an easy, but very imformative read. There are several whole multigenre papers that are printed in their original form in the book that I found very helpful in explaining what forms these papers might take.