The Ins, Outs, and In-Betweens of Multigenre Writing Author(s): Nancy Mack Source: The English Journal, Vol. 92, No. 2, Multigenre Teaching (Nov., 2002), pp. 91-98 Published by: National Council of Teachers of English Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/822231 Accessed: 19/06/2009 09:11 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ncte. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
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MultigenreWriting
NANCY MACK
ike many teachers I have been workingmy way towardmultigenreprojectsby adding
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visuals and creative formatsto my writing assignments.I have been greatlyassisted in my progressover the yearsby Tom Romano'sbooks about teaching writing-Clearing the Way; Writingwith Passion; and Blending Genre, Altering Style-which in them-
selves represent one teacher'sprofessionaldevelopment. After recently collecting a batch of stellarmultigenreprojects,I was so pleased that I took them to a facultymeeting and subversively arrangedthem on the center table in the hopes that their merit alone would convince ofthevalueofthistypeofassignment. of academicskillsthanthe minimalrequisitesof the mycolleagues
Severalof my colleaguesgenerouslytook the time afterthe meeting to look throughthe projectsand celebrate their excellence. Sharingmy students' writingis a wonderfulwayto let my workas an educatorspeakfor my methodology,but I owe myself andmy colleaguesa morethoughtfulanalysisof the academicvirtuesof multigenreprojects. My strongestmotivationfor studyingmultigenrewritingis the compellingresponsesof mystudentswho haveauthoredwritingprojectsthathave awed me with their power and elegance. I am movedto thinkof my students'writingasmorethan reportsor papers.Theyareworksof art,not simply because of theirvisualor poetic inclusions,but beForsupport causeof theiraestheticmeaningfulness. of my point aboutaesthetics,I turnto the workof MikhailBakhtin,a Russianliterarycritic, whose scholarshipmasterfullypresents a similarcase for acceptingthe dialogiclanguageof the novel as art. Yetas I do so, I fullyrealizethatsomewouldnot accept the mixedqualityof these multigenreprojects as academicwriting.Perhapsthe most persuasive argumentthat I can marshalto convinceothersof the usefulnessof the multigenreassignmentis that this type of writingrequiresmuchmore in the way
traditionalmonogenreresearchpaper.Combining these two perspectives,to fosterwritingas both an artanda skill,demonstrateshow multigenrewriting can be utilizedto teach criticalanalysis,documentationof sources,and aestheticunity. Beforeexaminingmultigenrewritingin more depth, I need to respondto the mythof the traditionalcollege researchpaperformat.The most authoritativevoice that I can invokeon this matteris that of composition scholar and journal editor, RichardLarson.In hisarticle,"The'ResearchPaper' in the WritingCourse:A Non-Formof Writing,"he explainsthat universitieshouse a plethoraof conflictingdisciplines,all of whichhavecompetingnotions of what academicresearchrequires.I would addto Larson'scritiquethatin anyone areaof study such as polymerengineering,marketresearch,or geriatricsociology,what qualifiesas researchitself hasprobablychangedsignificantly in the lasttwentyfiveyearsandwillcontinueto change,perhapseven more rapidlyin the future. Understandably,high school teachers and general educationprofessors harborthe unrealisticdesirethatone reportformat could be decided upon thatwould satisfyall of the disciplinesandallof the coursesat the university.If EnGLISH
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we had such an all-purpose,standardizedformat, writingwould be far easier to teach and produce. The researchreportmighteven become a template or an icon on a wordprocessingprogramthata student couldsimplyclickto set the formatbeforebeaskingacademicsin any ginningto write.Regretably, disciplineto agree on somethingas limited as one brandof documentationstyle-MLA, APA,CSE, Chicago,etc.--could resultin a duel to the death. Even within the disciplineof English studies,linguists,literarycritics,ethnographicresearchers,Englishas a secondlanguagescholars,andprofessional writersall need diversesystemsto cite theirparticularsourcesof information.In muchthe sameway as the researchpaper myth, standardsand proficiencyinitiativespush for the minimumin competencies and skills. Naming one written format as universalis not onlyfallaciousbutfunctionsin practice to misrepresentacademicresearchitself as little morethansummarizingmultipletextualsources on the sametopicwithoutanycriticalor creativeinterpretation.Havingbeen botha secondaryteacher anda universityprofessor,I can saythataskingstudentsto imitatea dumbed-down,artificialresearch paper formatmost often resultsin boring,plagiarizedpapers.These drawbacksare partof the reasonwhyI createda multigenreresearchassignment that I believe providesa more academicallychallenginglearningexperiencefor my students.Likewise, I have learned a great deal about teaching writingfromthisexperience.Althoughthe incidents andexamplescitedhere areaboutcollege students, the lessons abouthow studentsand teacherslearn fromone anotherare moreuniversal.
My ClassroomContext In a new courseaboutwritingworkshoppedagogy, I plannedfor IntegratedLanguageArtsmajorsto experiencemultigenreresearchwritingin the middle partof a ten-week course.Ourtextbookswere Atwell'sIn the Middle, Romano'sWriting with Passion, and Weaver's Teaching Grammar in Context. For the first two and a half weeks of the course, students wrote and published a portfolio of poetry, and during the last three weeks we focused on the teaching of grammarthrough writing projects. Students also kept reading journals and were e-pals with high school students. When I first introduced the idea of multigenre writing, none of the students had ever heard of such an assignment before, and
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some even complained that they were reluctant to participate in a less than traditional assignment. The topic of folklore was presented, using some of the introductory ideas from Simmons's Student Worlds, Student Words, and students completed several brainstorming sheets about family stories, folk group identities, and community history. Students were given an overview of the project that required both primary research from first person interviews and secondary research from books, newspapers, and Web sources. After initial exploratory interviews with informants, most students found a central story that they wanted to tell about a relative, group, or town. Students chose the following topics: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
family love stories a relative'sexperiences with racism the death of a great-uncle in WWII a remembrance of a mother's life three generations of mechanics a scout troop's bad weather camping trip the founder of a local church a difficult genealogy search two generations of teenage rebellion the role of dance in a couple's relationship a great-grandmother'sstrength through faith a family's pattern of affection and indifference a high school drama club a town's reactions to a prison riot a family farm'shistory a losing high school football team
At first I asked for the projects to include three genres but quicklyexpanded this requirement to five genres when I realized how much effort students wanted to invest in this project. I did minilessons on * interviewing and note taking * examining other students' multigenre projects * sharing possible genres and unusual publishing formats * finding historical and analytical sources * selecting a theme and focusing on one event * incorporating contextual details and multiple perspectives
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writing in another person's voice writing about a photograph troubleshooting problems documenting primary and secondary sources * drafting a letter of introduction to the reader * creating a bibliography and footnotes
CriticalAnalysis I stressed early in the term that the academic discipline of folklore presumes that all cultures are worthy of study, analysis, and respect. I stressed critical analysis through two types of minilessons, researching historical contexts and including multiple perspectives of the same event, encouraging students to find places in their writing to add rich, contextual details about economics, politics, and culturalnorms. In class discussions we considered how the mindset of the time period made it difficult for individuals to escape the pressures of predefined roles or culturalstereotypes. Jeff empatheticallyanalyzedhis mother's problems as a young wife in the late sixties and early seventies: Mymotherhadgrownup beinga submissive American woman,taughtby a now-antiquated logic-and mygrandmother-tosuppressher voicein favorof a man's.... The need of my motherfora stronghusbandandthe need of my fatherforanobedientwife met likethe piecesof a jigsawpuzzle.The pair,one mightsay,justfell intoplace. Jeff used a historic discussion of the gender roles to foreground his memoir about his mother'ssacrifices: Whentimeswereespeciallyhard,andmyfather wasathisworst,ourmotherhadto walkfromour houseto a nearbystripmallin orderto sellher classring.It waspreciousto her,identicalto her twobestfriends'rings,butshewaswillingto sacrifice anythingforherchildren. Thoseimagesof mymother-her weakness in marriageand andherstrength,herhumiliation herpridein callingus herchildren-haveflooded mysenseswithemotionin the dayssinceshe has beengone.Standingin the hallwayoutsidemy parent'sbedroomor drivingpastthejewelrystore thatboughtmymother'sringyearsagogrounds me, humblesme withidentity.I amremindedof the turmoilmymothersurvived,the strugglethat hasboundus-my sister,mymother,andIcloserthananyotherfamilyI knowI am
remindedthatI ama son,thatI willone day be a father,thatI amhers. Jeff powerfully rewrote his mother'spublished obituary to include information that was not mentioned in the original newspaper article; both obituaries, the actual and the revised one, were placed side by side to emphasize the revision. Jeff's added details demonstrated many types of analysis:historic, gendered, economic, personal, and ironic. Students made a concerted effort to demonstrate in their writing that they understood the time period and the social forces that framed the stories that they wished to understand and honor.
In class discussions we considered how the mind-set of the time period made it difficult for individuals to escape the pressures of predefined roles or cultural stereotypes.
I introduced another type of critical analysis with a minilesson that had students experiment with differences in perspective. After a few minutes brainstorming details about a particular person's habits and values, students enjoyed writing in the voice of a character from their folklore story. Most of the projects included multiple first person perspectives. I was impressed with how writing from multiple perspectives precipitated more complexity and conflict in students' representations of a selected event. A few students even made the resolution of ideological conflicts the focus of one of their final pieces. Rachel's family folklore project dramatized an act of discrimination against a relative. To represent conflicting beliefs about racism, Rachel wrote from six different perspectives and utilized the genres of a diary entry, a morning conversation, a one act play, a stream of consciousness monologue, an excerpt from an interview, and a EnGLISH
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eulogy from another character's perspective explaining how the main character'sbeliefs about race had changed over time to include family members from different races: ButDadwasn'tperfect.He hadhisfaultslike everyoneelse. He oncetoldallof hiskidsthatwe shouldn'tdate"outsideourkind."ButI don'tthink Dadwastrulyprejudiced.I believehisintolerance wasthe resultof a negativeexperiencein his youth.He wastargetedbecauseof his"background"andI believehe wantedhiskidsto be safe by stayingcloseto familyandourculture.... We sawa changein Dad,he kindof softeneda bit as he gotolder.Raceandcolordidn'tmatterto him anymore.... He showedus allthatit is possibleto changeourattitudes,andI hopewe allwillrememberhislife andlearna lessonfromit. As a writer, Rachel's task was quite difficult. Originally, she focused only on a lunch counter incident in which the central character suffers racial bigotry, but she later decided to make the problem of racism more complicated by alluding to this character'sown biases about race. Criticallyreflecting upon her ethical obligations to her family members and readers, Rachel chose to add the eulogy to clarify that time and family events had changed the main character's racialbiases. Since a multigenre project can include fiction and nonfiction, authors must decide when it is ethical to fictionalize events in order to add another perspective. As students generated multiple pieces for their projects, conflicts arose among differing perspectives of the same event that would not have occurred had I assigned a more traditional,monogenre format. Multigenrewriting has the potential to make use of the dialogic quality of language. In his scholarly writing, Bakhtin often appropriateswords and phrases in unusualways to represent his unique concepts. A firstimpression of his use of"dialogic"might be that this term literally describes a dialogue that occurs among characters;however, Bakhtin extends this concept to include a social dialogue that exists implicitlywithin a single word. Accordingly,Bakhtin explains how language carries historic meanings that can potentially provoke dialogues across generations in which the author feels obligated to speak an "answer-word"to future generations: Thewordin livingconversation is directly,blait tantly,orientedtowarda futureanswer-word: it andstructures itprovokesananswer,anticipates selfin the answer's direction.Formingitselfin an
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atmosphereof the alreadyspoken, the word is at the same time determined by that which has not yet been said but which is needed and in fact anticipated by the answeringword. (Dialogic Imagination280)
Writingaboutthe past put studentsin the ethical positionof interpretingthe past for futuregenerations. Rachel and other students authoredmultigenre projectsthat revealeda responsivedialogue amongtheir differentpieces of writingand across generationsthrougha sophisticateduse of multiple types of language. Bakhtindescribes this hybrid a usefultool qualityof languageas "heteroglossia," for the writersince within any languagethere is a social stratificationof diverseclasses,generations, professions,epochs,politics,etc. I hadnot expected that the contextualand dialogicqualitiesof multigenre writingwouldelicit such intricatetexts from my students.Theirfolkloreresearchprojectswere so muchmorethana bunchof familystoriesortown legends.When I sharecopies of the projectsof my formerstudentswiththe new studentsnextterm,I willemphasizehowthe historicdetailsandthe multipleperspectivesaddedlayersof analysisto the representationof a singleevent.
Documentation The contextualand dialogicqualityof these multigenreprojectscommandedanequallycomplexprocess forreferencingprimaryandsecondarysources, fact and fiction, and authorialintent, which provoked studentsto reconsidertheir responsibilities as writers.I beganthe processby stressingthatthe oralinterviewswere seriousdatathat mustbe documentedjustlikebooksorWebsites. Studentstook notes or transcribedtapesfor all of theirinterviews and catalogedeach one in their bibliographies.Of the three or more interviews,two were to be with the samepersonon differentdatesin orderto generate reflective,follow-upquestions.I providedan interview release form for students to make informants aware of their rights and cautioned students to retell the stories of others respectfully. I checked interview notes and secondary research notes daily to be sure that students were not putting these tasks off until the last minute. At first students had difficulty coming up with secondary sources. We discussed various types of contextual historicalinformationthat could be researched. Excitement erupted when Holly found a
1944Sagamagazinearticleto use as a modelforher WWII story,and Kimberlyfound a databasewith informationaboutBig Bandsandthe jargonassociatedwithswingdancing.Analyticalinformationwas harderfor students to locate. After a few suggestions,theyeventuallyfoundarticlesby expertsin related fields such as counseling, communications, management,sociology,and psychology.One student thought that it would be clever to involve Freudas a guestin a fictitioustalkshow.Originally, I fearedthat this studenthad no knowledgeabout
Suddenly their readings in other courses became relevant to their work in English class. Freud,but the student'swritingevidenceda familiaritywith the conceptsof ego andid fromreadings for a psychologycourse.Suddenlytheirreadingsin othercoursesbecame relevantto theirworkin Englishclass.Certainlythese projectscouldhavebeen completedwithouthistoricalandanalyticalsources; hence, I called attentionto the practicesof fiction writerswho spend a great deal of time in libraries researchinginformationthat makestheirhistorical or murdermysterynovelsmorerealistic. Due to the modernizationof documentation systemssuch as MLA'sinternalcitations,the use of Footnotesare footnoteshasbecomesomewhat pass. stillutilizedfor contentinformation,althoughsome professionaljournalsdiscourageauthorsfromusing them, and,if used, they areplacedat the end of the articleor chapter.I can rememberthe daysbefore computerswhen studentswere taughtthe complicated processof placingfootnotesat the bottomof the page on whichthe informationwas cited. Since most college and high schoolcoursesare no longer demandingthem,I contemplatedthatrequiringfootnotesmightbe a nice opportunityto impressmycolleagues by increasingthe ante on academicskills. Actually, myinsistenceon footnotesforthispaperwas less a matterof feigningthe appearanceof rigorous standardsandmore a matterof necessity.The need for diverse genres promptedstudentsto produce pieces that were imitationsof newspapers,letters,
textbooks,magazines,marriagecertificates,etc. Some included copies of real documents, since I certainly didn't want students to incorporate rare family artifacts into their projects.Without footnotes it became almost impossible for me to tell which documents were copies and which ones were fakes. This ethical dilemma came up spontaneouslyin classjust daysbefore the projects were due. Footnotes were inserted in order to document which parts of the information given were factual and how primary and secondary sources were used. For example, Kimberly did her project about six generations of family love stories. The firststorywas the oldest and the one about which Kimberly had the least primary information. She knew that her relative was a millwright in northern Ohio in the late 1800s, and his wife was the former cook for the lumber camp, so she generated two fictitious pages of an Ohio history textbook. In addition to her excellent computer skills, Kimberly tore the edges of the pages to make them look like they were literally ripped out of a textbook and then mounted them in a large scrapbookalongwith her other pieces. Her footnote explains: CalandEmmawereused Thefactssurrounding as muchaspossibleforthe piece.Littleis known abouttheirfirstencountersas theydiedin the late 1940s,withtheirdaughterLavadabeingthe only childleftto tell the story;however,the historical contextforthe timeframewhentheymetis easily researchedon theWeb.Ironically enough,this abundanceof information gaveme theideato do a textbookstylestorywithmygrandparents' storyin aninterviewpageof thistext.ThefactsfromCal infromLavada's andEmma'slife areparaphrased terview(Lavada2, 8-9); the factsembeddedin the fromvariouslumber textbookareparaphrased Web sites LUMBER,Museumof (Huronia, camp is quotedfromthe era's Logging);the introduction widespreadlegendof PaulBunyan(Folklore Class,PaulBunyan). In some cases, the students wanted to fool the reader but only temporarily, for effect. Footnotes were needed to provide spaces where students could explain their ethical intentions for composing a particular type of document. Many students created pieces with dual perspectives when they wrote letters, diary entries, eulogies, obituaries, and commendations in another character's voice. Bakhtin analyzes the writer's ability to create prose that is double-voiced: "It serves two speakers at the same time and expresses simultaneously two different intentions: The direct intention of the characterwho is EfNGLISH
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speaking,andthe refractedintentionof the author" (DialogicImagination324). Bakhtinwrites extensivelyaboutseveraltypesof double-voiceddiscourse asaninternaldialoguebetweenvariousperspectives. As I rereadthe footnoteswrittenby my studentsforthis article,I noticedthatmanyusedthem to provideadditionalcommentaryabouttheirpieces, with some even dialogingmore directlywith the piece. Rachel,whose projectaboutracialdiscriminationwasconsideredearlier,includeda copyof the poem "TakingIt Back"by Dixie Salazarpriorto her ownpiecesof writing.Rachelemployedfootnotesso she couldconversewith specificlines in this poem. In directresponseto the openinglines of the poem Like Fugitives, or outlaws on the lam, we moved away, changed the spelling of our last name,
Rachel'sfootnotestated: My familynever changed the spelling of our last names like Dixie Salazar'sfamilydoes in the poem "TakingIt Back";however the pronunciationof the Spanishnames became "Anglicized."My mother'smaiden name is Tellez. (The correctpronunciationis Tey-ez, but they pronounce it Tell-ez. My father'slast name is Lerma,which has a trickier pronunciation;the letter r should be softly rolled, but it isn't.)While this may not seem like a big deal to some people, I believe it is important because a name is the biggest identifier of who you are. I can relate to this poem because our family names were "assimilated"to become more acceptable to the rest of society. (Whichin our case was NorthwesternOhio.)
Frankly,I hadnot suggestedthe use of footnotesfor commentaryabouta publishedauthor'swriting,but Rachelimpressedme with the manywaysthat she foundto incorporateher researchaboutracialidentity into her project.In the future,I intendto give more guidanceto studentsaboutwhat type of informationto include in footnotes,but generallyI was pleased with the constructiveways in which they used footnotes not only to document their use of research, but to explain how they had authored an ethical dialogue between fact and fiction.
Coherenceand Aesthetic Unity Yearsof teachinghadpreparedme to anticipatecertainproblemswiththistypeof assignment,but I had not adequately thought through how difficult it
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would be for studentsto hold togetherseveraldifferent pieces of writingon the same topic. A few students ended up with a hodgepodge of interorderanddid changeablepartsthathadno particular not leadprogressivelyfrombeginningto end. Other studentssolvedtheirproblemswithcoherencein interestingways.Shauna,who didher reporton three generationsof mechanicsin her family,articulated how she solved this problemin a class discussion, whichhappenedtoo late for othersto reworktheir projects.Shaunabecamea characterinherownproject bydevisinga largerstoryabouthelpinga relative move, whichestablishedthe conflictof whetherto throwout a boxof old familypapers.The gambitof unpackingthe box becamea frameworkfor several chaptersaboutthe familymembersthatrecounted Shauna'sgrowingawarenessof the pridethatthese men had in theirknowledgeaboutcarsandplanes. Fromthis classof students,I havelearnedhowvarioustypesof transitionaldevicessuchas chronology, narrativeframe,thematicquotations,repetitionof characters,and timelinescan assistthe multigenre writer,and I will certainlyintegratethese strategies into futureminilessons. Introductoryandconcludingdocumentsdid to help improvethe projects'coherenceand unity. I suggestedintroductorylettersto the tlass afterwe readan examplemultigenreprojectfromBlending Genres.The most effectiveletterswere productive placesforstudentsto reflectuponhowtheyselected their topic andwhatinsightswere gainedfromthe researchprocess. Since some of the genres were hardto identifyat first,I will in the futureassigna tableof contents,listingtitles of each selectionand identifyingthe genre and page number.I will also emphasizethe usefulnessof a concludingpiece that turnsthe reader'sattentionto the futureor putsthe whole experienceinto perspectivethroughanalysis of conflictingperspectives. or resolution/irresolution Coherenceandunityarehighlyvaluedtraits of published texts. I am reminded of how many works of fiction require the reader to make sense from multiple genres and perspectives such as Canterbury Tales,A Midsummer Night's Dream, Crime and Punishment, Ulysses, The Great Gatsby, The Martian Chronicles, Nothing but the Truth,Tearsof a Tiger, etc. Similarly,my limited experience viewing Web pages has made me more critical of how Web designers combine competing information and hyperlinks to promote or in some cases deceive the viewer. Understandably, the tension that holds di-
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* requires for begenerated thatdiverse typesofwriting a theme * permits ofviceverse form instead todictate meaning * presents ofoneevent conflicting perspectives multiple, ortopic * stimulates skills levelthinking andhigher critical analysis * provides foraneventortopic context a rich * integrates text intoa meaningful information factual orsimple recall versus copying * canincorporate and oralhistory, folklore, interviews, research ethnographic * demonstrates ofvarious a sophisticated types knowledge andusesoflanguage * creates to ofa problem theparts coherence among besolved * requires andcareful a bibliography, footnotes, ofsources documentation * isalmost toplagiarize impossible * permits and interests tohighlight theauthor personal expertise special * canmake andmultimedia fulluseofcomputers * imitates novels andinnovative theformat ofmodern business reports * results inanaesthetically attractive product * demands andresponse careful reading
verse elements together is a far more demanding skillthanrequiringthatstudentspreparean outline of majorand minor supportsfor a topic that they haveresearched.Multigenreprojectsplacethe burden on the student to authora coherent, unified whole out of dissimilarpieces of writing. In the mostinterestingexamplesof published writing,coherenceandunityarenot determinedby the dictatesof the formatbut by the significanceof the content.Thus, coherencehas more to do with meaningfulness than mechanical requirements. Ironically,the teachercan constructan assignment in such a way as to cause studentsto have coher-
ence problems.Indeed, it maybe harderto make a piece of writingcoherentthathas severalisolated requirements-whether these requirementsare mono-or multigenrein nature-but whatultimately motivatesthe writerto struggleto create a meaningfulwhole is the personalsignificanceof the text. Bakhtindiscussesproblemswithunityin the first line of one of his earliestworks:"Awhole is whenitsconstituentelementsare called'mechanical' unitedonlyin spaceandtime by some externalconnectionand are not imbuedwith the internalunity of meaning"(Art and Answerability1). Bakhtin's philosophicalview of aestheticunitytakesmeaning into account.He explainsthat a dynamic,organic unitybetweenartandlife is anintentionalconstruction by the author,an "architectonic"; however,this when art andlifebebecomes unity meaningfulonly is come answerableto one another."Answerability" forwhichBakhtinbelieves anaestheticresponsibility thatthe authormusttakethe blamefor creatingan organicunitybetweenartandlife. My interpretationof Bakhtin'spoint is that, forwritingto reachthe level of art,it mustbringthe writerintegrityby expressinga momentaryanswer for the unique experiencesthat are meaningfulin the artist'slife. By makingtheirwritinganswerable fortheirlife experiences,these studentscreatedart: Jeff honoredhis mother'sstrength,Racheldramatizedthe complexityof racism,Kimberlycelebrated love stories,Shaunalaudedthe laborof men from her family,and there were severalother students whose projectswere aestheticallymeaningful.For the few daysthatI hadthem,I sharedtheseprojects withmyfriendsandcolleagues,whowere movedby the students'powerfuluses of language.Manystudentstoldme thattheyproudlysharedtheirwriting withfamilyandfriends.Artthatis answerableseeks to continueits dialoguewith others. Far too many writing assignmentsanswer onlythe need to generatea gradeor checkoff an accomplishedskill.Of course,the multigenreproject has all the potential to become the traditional research paper of the future. Not all of my students' projects were of an amazingly high caliber; a few were perfunctory efforts done only to pass the course. The pitfall comes from focusing on form rather than content, not from the merit of a particular format. Answerability may sound like a nebulous goal for students' writing assignments, but I worry that when we leave meaning out of the picture and teach form as a universal construct, we make EnGLISH
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writinginto a mechanical,mindlesstask. For me, multigenreassignmentshave instructionalvalidity onlywhen they producemeaningfultexts. Since no assignmentor formatwill unilaterallyguaranteemeaningfulwriting,the teachercan only hope to createassignmentsthat makeit more likelythat studentswill riskinsertingmeaningfulness into their writing.From my teachingexperiences, I knowthat assignmentsmustbe innovative and interestingenough so that they appearunlike the old drudgeryof hackneyedassignments.The formatmustbe open andattractiveto invitethe possibility of doing something engaging ratherthan merelypursuingthe trivialschoolgame.Topicsfor writingshouldmake use of the unique knowledge and skills that students alreadyhave, connecting schoolworkin a respectfulway to thingsthat they valuein theirpersonallives.The completedassignment should be personallysignificantand full of powerand integrityfor the authorso thatthe writing itself demandsto be heardby a realaudience. Perhapsit is easierto studywhatgoes wrong with teachingthan to studywhy a particularstrategy or assignmentworkswell. Classroommistakes demandthatwe payattentionand,if at allpossible, repairourmistakesbythe nextclassperiod,whereas successes do not force us to considerwhat can be learnedwhen studentswritewell and enjoythemselves in the process. Teachersare criticized for being more interestedin what worksthan in mattersof theoryandanalysis.Maybewhatworksin the classroomis an enactmentof personaltheorizing that must be articulatedand examined in more depthforcontinuedprofessionaldevelopment.The questionthatwill lead us forwardto bettertheories andpracticesis, Whydoes thiswork? Afterthree decadesas a teacher,I have decidedto assignonlywritingprojectsthatI can'twait
to read. Life is too short and too messy to teach phonyformulas,andstudentsaretoowonderfuland insightfulto be trivializedby pointlessassignments. Writingshould be full of meaning and joyous to share. Likewise,the assignmentsthat I authorfor my students are my own moment of personalinfor my careeras a teacher tegrity,my answerability of writing. Multigenrewritinghas worked in my classroombecause studentshave been able to use this assignmentto writeartfullyandskillfullyabout thingsthatmatterin theirlives. Works Cited Bakhtin,MikhailM.Artand Answerability.Austin:The Universityof TexasPress, 1990. -. The Dialogic Imagination. Austin:The University of TexasPress, 1981. Larson, Richard. "The 'Research Paper' in the Writing Course: A Non-Form of Writing." The Writing Teacher'sSourcebook.New York:OxfordUP, 1994. 180-85. Romano,Tom.BlendingGenre,AlternateStyle.Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook,2000. the Way:Workingwith TeenageWriters. . . Clearing NH: Portsmouth, Heinemann, 1987. Writingwith Passion:Life Stories,MultipleGenres. Portsmouth,NH: Boynton/Cook,1995. Salazar,Dixie. "TakingIt Back." UnsettlingAmerica. Eds. Maria Mazziotti Gillan and Jennifer Gillan. New York:Viking,1994. 149-51. Simmons,ElizabethRadin.StudentWorlds,StudentWords: Teaching Writing through Folklore. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook,1990. -.
A formermiddle schoolteacher,NANCYMACKteaches preservice and inservice teachers at Wright State Universityin Dayton, Ohio, and codirects the WSU Institute on Writing and Teaching.
ACEIInternationalConference The Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) announces its annual conference and exhibition April 13-16, 2003, in Phoenix, Arizona. The theme is "Bridgingthe Gap: Educating the Hearts and Minds of Our Future." The conference will feature 200+ workshops and seminars on topics of interest to teachers, teacher educators, college students, child care personnel, and other caregivers, as well as symposia on Standards and Standardized Testing, Teaching the Whole Child, and Family and Community Involvement in Education. For more information, contact ACEI at 800/423-3563 or visit our Web site at www.ACEI.org. E-mail: ACEImc@aol.com.
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