4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
How to write a multigenre paper! It's here!, December 27, 2002
This review is from: Writing with Passion: Life Stories, Multiple Genres (Paperback)
With a writing class, we were asked to produce a multigenre paper, and my response is "what in the bloody frigg digg is a multigenre paper?" With this wonderful teaching book by Tom Romano, I learned what a multigenre paper is and furthermore, I learned how to do it.
Number one: You have to let your creative juices spill out! And they must spill out for several pieces for several different genres of writing, whether it is a poem, a play, an editorial, lyrics to a song, anecdote, dialogue, monologue, etc. That's what a multi-genre piece is all about, because it incorporates your vision of several voices for your paper.
Romano shares stories about his generational family. He is a high school teacher and became inspired with the genre writing of "The Collected Works of Billy the Kid" by Michael Ondaajte. With this book, he began to teach his students how to express themselves with the use of multigenre papers.
There are plenty of examples from his students to guide you. Included are some grammar b styles which enforce unique style to your pieces. Grammar b is writing in a different style that is a departure from normal sentence/verb structure. You will learn grammar b here.
It's a wonderful instructional book. MzRizz.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
blood is to the body as ink is to the soul, November 10, 2010
This review is from: Writing with Passion: Life Stories, Multiple Genres (Paperback)
Inspired, a poet does not construct stanzas with perfect words, as an architect, who does not first draw a precise foundation; an artist, likewise, does not dabble over a figure until it is ideal. Before an idea can be committed to, there is a moment of rapture, excitement, some call it the "light bulb" or "aha" moment, but all of us individually know this moment in which we have a dream, a vision, that moment of intense inspiration.
As a future educator, before I ever picked up one of Romano's books, I worried I would fail as an educator and even worse, fail to inspire the students within my classroom. It would be untruthful for me to say that this fear does not persist, but it is not a considerable adversary either.
In Writing With Passion: Life Stories, Multiple Genres, Tom Romano reveals his teaching pedagogy and overall teaching philosophy with the reader, and does not impose these ideas, rather he presents what he believes is successful in his own classroom, and develops an environment of collaboration as opposed to an all knowing master educator. All content found within each chapter revolves around the central idea of passion. If no joy, pain, excitement, or tension is felt, from a philosophical standpoint, is that a life to live? Grammar, syntax, spelling, while they are all of utmost importance in any academic setting, they are not critical in all writing. What is critical, of greatest importance, the very life-blood of writing itself, is the development and cultivation of personal voice, "the heart" of literacy (xi). Releasing the students of stringent rules, although temporarily, also releases their voice in their writing.
In the first few pages, Romano tells us of his experiences with books as a young student, and shares with us his love of sharing stories which are of equal importance to his "arguments, persuasion, and analysis" (ix). Thus he also looks at the various works of his students, which some would critique as a lower level of writing and not based on sound academics. To establish his foundation Romano is able to look at these works and justify a narrative of a student who "used analytical skills, even though she didn't write a discursive essay" but still "demonstrate[ed] her understanding of a complex societal system" (4-5). Romano justifies what the student justifies in the nature of the work, although there is no formal academic essay structure, the piece is not void of academic elements.
Notably, Romano is able to present lesson plans woven within striking narratives and stories. Reading a lesson activity he endorses, which consists of writing a "short piece of fiction... incorporat[ing] details of research," I found myself immersed in a story created by his daughter, then a senior in high school (8). Romano tells us that his daughter, Mariana, had gathered research on Romano's parents, and the story of how they immigrated to the United States in the early 1900's. However, Mariana gathered facts, and from those cold facts, she wove a beautiful fictional account of the first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty from a crowded boat, the fighting amongst Romano's uncles, and the essence of a family starting a new life together. The story was filled with factual accuracy, while fictional, and vividly rich with images and characters that she and her father could picture with accurate detail. Romano tells us how Mariana finished the story with a young member of the family holding a roughly cut, wooden pony, and how when she gently finished the tale as he was in tears. While Romano recounts his emotion, I likewise found myself in tears.
Thus we have a glance at why Romano's pedagogy is effective, because it captures not what is tangible, or academically sound as a goal, but rather a byproduct of truly inspired writing, while it purposely seeks out the reader for a direct emotional, passionate connection.
In order to release the voice of each student, Romano proposes the use of several elements and style in the classroom, of which Grammar B is first introduced. Grammar B "breaches the social amenities of Grammar A" that is it "breaks the rules of [conventional writing] as a means of communicating powerfully" essentially removing the rules of grammar thus allowing the students to express themselves freely (75). Although there may be academic reservations, Romano points out that writers such as Emily Dickinson, D.H. Lawrence, Walt Whitman, and notable others have used this style. A notable element found in Grammar B is that of Orthographic Variation, as exemplified in John Dos Passos, The Big Money, in which style is essential in the audiences' sense of time,
Improving all the time...fifteen minutes for lunch, three minutes to go to the toilet...speedup everywhere, reachunder, adjustwasher, screwdown bolt, shove in cotterpin, reachunder, adjustwasher, screwdown bolt, reachunderadjustscrewdownreachunderadjustwasher (83).
It is important to note that Grammar B is only one part of the curriculum that would assist in the cultivation of such writing. Romano uses an interesting text, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid by Michael Onadaatje, to introduce the concept of a Multi-genre Research Paper. Romano explains his perception of the world as the basis of the project, "sometimes I see the world through poetry...sometimes I see the world through prose...sometimes I see the world through dramatic encounters" (109). Thus the project is precisely that, a fragmented research paper consisting of solid research expressed in narratives, poetry, character biographies, pictures, lyrics and other tangible expressive forms in which "each genre reveals a facet" of their factual research (110). While this type of paper enables an educator to reach and include the lower performing student in any class, it is still academically sound as it involves rich research which students must attribute to each element of their project, it is only their expressive style in which they relay that information which has been altered, or change, an evolution perhaps, as Romano explain himself, "I am not static...I am evolving" (128).
To best capture the essence of Romano's pedagogy is to experience the sense of collaboration and true passion for writing found in his work, blood is to the body as ink is to the soul, and Romano puts his "heart on paper every time" (176).
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