Each genre reflects content through different forms, creating insights unique to that genre. A poem expresses an idea in a radically different way than a news report. A short story and an essay on the same event open different doors of perception. To help students explore how different forms generate different types of information, Tom Romano in his book Writing with Passion suggests having students create a multigenre research paper. Using music, character sketches, comic book creations, art, short stories, poetry, monologue, news reports, and a host of other communicative genres, students piece together a research paper.

          Try this variation of Romano's multigenre assignment. Divide the class into groups of five or six. As a team have them select an individual, living or dead, who fascinates them. Explain that their task will be to create a multigenre paper examining this person. The individual can be an historical figure, an actor or actress, a musician, a scientist, an author, a politician, a general, a poet, a criminal, a comedian---any person the group finds engaging. The only requirement is that a mixture of magazine articles, books, and multimedia material be available for all members of the group to research this captivating individual. To avoid students selecting a person about whom little has been written, require each team to create a bibliography of available material to be submitted with their proposed topic.

          After the group selects a person and checks on the available research material, explain that their task will be to create a multigenre research paper using some combination of the following genres and subgenres:

Art: drawings, paintings, collages, photographs, VCR clips, ceramics, sculpture, jewelry, mixed media, cartoons, comic books, advertisements, T-shirts, logos, billboards, architectural designs, CD covers

Music: original or found, instrumentals, songs with lyrics, tunes written with the flavor of blues, jazz, rock, rap, pop, country, or classical, electronic music, percussion music, Native American music, music from a specific time period

Drama: one-act play, reader's theater, a film scene, a monologue, a formal speech, a dialogue

Fiction: short story, character sketches, action dramas, fictional memoirs, fictional letters, fictional diaries, a legend, children's story, anecdote, short description, mystery, science-fi story, western, romance, humorous piece, horror story, a detective story

Nonfiction: magazine articles, biographies, news reports, letters, diaries, sports features, personality feature, weather reports, opinions, movie reviews, film reviews, opinions, how-to pieces, scientific piece, historical piece, informational piece on music, art, entertainment, medicine, or technology

Poetry: lyric poems, narrative poems, pop poems, shape poems, cinquains, syllable poems, haikus, and song lyrics

Photographs: film, video, slides, photographs, Xeroxes

          Each team member will be responsible for contributing two works from two different genres. While students may duplicate categories of genres, teams should strive for as much variety as possible. Each entry should contribute significant information on the chosen personality. Tell students that as a team they may share resources, interpreting different aspects of the same resource in different genres.

          Explain that each student on the team will receive two grades: one for individual effort, and one for the quality of the team project. Grades might be based on criteria such as:

25% Content:

evidence of research, interesting insights, clarity and conciseness, depth of details

20% Form:

powerful use of the elements of selected genre

20% Style:

quality of stylistic elements in sentence structures, paragraphs, passages and word choice

20% Conventions:

few conventional errors

15% Team Grade:

unity of the overall project

          As a model, Romano suggests using Michael Ondaatje's The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, a unique book that describes the life of Billy the Kid through multiple genres, such as songs, thumbnail sketches, poems, drawings, monologue, newspaper reports, and so on. You may want to make overheads of selected sections of the book for in-class illustrations.

          Students should present their researched personalities to the class. If time permits, follow with a discussion on how different genres contribute different perspectives.