Blending Genre, Altering Style : Writing Multigenre Papers

Rating:
Summary: Teachers and Writers Guide
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Teachers and Writers Guide
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A great writing reference
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A must for teachers and writers!
Review: What do Avi, Sharon Draper, Walter Dean Myers and Stephen King have in common?

They all write books that secondary school kids love to read and they have all begun to experiment with blending genre and style in their novels. This book is a fantastic resource for the writer and/or instructor of writing. I happen to be both, and the masterful teachings of Tom Romano have been instrumental in elevating my ability as a writer and enhancing my skill as a teacher.

Romano crusades on a mission of smashing the shackles of expression in writing without destroying the important standards of traditional expository and descriptive approaches. I am not sure how he would feel about this extended metaphor, but I feel like he helped me organize my toolbox and left me with a great new power screw driver to boot!

I have watched very reluctant writers get excited about composition when they are presented with the idea of designing a skateboard graphic design or cartoon... to express their opinion on a given theme. Romano helps us give permission to students to look around the world they live in for models of authentic writing and experiment with using those models in both descriptive and expository (and dare I say even research report) assignments.

I promise this, along with his other books, will rejuvenate your teaching and writing!