The Multigenre Narrative
What is a multigenre narrative?
Tom Romano was the first to describe how to teach the multigenre research paper in his book,
Writing With Passion (1995). In it, he explained his first use of the approach when he asked his
high school seniors to integrate various genres into a research paper about a famous person.
Students applied traditional research activities, but the output was anything but traditional as they
applied poetry, drama, interviews, letters, articles, or whatever they thought would best illustrate
the lives of their subjects.
Multigenre papers/portfolios are layered with poetry, letters, scripts, song lyrics, narratives, and
news articles created in response to information found through research or reflection. The basis
for Romano’s approach is to “[r]esist explaining, summing up, and analyzing. Create scenes
instead. Become like the novelist or filmmaker” (72). Personal topics, such as family history,
take a new appearance and tone when the writer creates a letter that an ancestor did not have time
to write. Perhaps, however, the best way to understand the form is examine the example
you read for today and examples I’ve brought with.
Why use the multi-genre portfolio approach?
Constructing a multigenre narrative allows writers to bring their prior knowledge and experience
to their writing and enlivens writing that contains a research component. In a traditional report on
a typical research topic such as anorexia, the writer funnels information from primary or
secondary sources into a standard form. The multigenre paper engages authors in a higher level
of creative thought and helps develop and hone their writing skills. Rather than summarizing the
information in a report, they use the facts to create multiple “[g]enres of narrative thinking,”
which Romano tells us “require writers to be concrete and precise. They can’t just tell in abstract
language. They can’t just be paradigmatic. They must show. They must make their topics
palpable” (26).
Constructing the multigenre narrative
In addition to being a new approach for the writer, the multigenre paper is likewise a new
concept for most readers, therefore it’s important to introduce your audience to the pieces you’ve
developed. We’ll orient readers to your writing by composing an introduction that clearly
explains the process used in developing your writings and which also contextualizes your topic.
This introduction will actually be written as your final exam after your narrative is
complete. Having a unifying theme to your multigenre narrative is essential, however, and
therefore we’ll focus on activities which help you reflect as well as give you time to simply take
a step back and arrive at a satisfactory theme before we begin composing additional pieces.
There will be two required pieces to your multigenre narrative, one of which is your “I Am
From” piece which you’ve already completed; the other will be the final whole-class writing, a
memoir. After we’ve finished composing these two required pieces, all choice within the
multigenre narrative will be completely in your control. By the end of the semester you’ll need
to have composed at least three different genres total 3000+ words, one of which will have a
small research component.
Ideas for genres*
will
e-mail
birth announcement
newscast teleprompter script
diary/journal entry
letter (to family, friend, of
application, etc.)
restaurant menu
obituary
phone conversation
fairy tale
postcard
TV commercial
news release
pro/con list
magazine article
ransom note
recipe
song lyrics
poem
horoscope
fantasy
psychiatrist’s report
greeting card
memo
myth
book jacket
parody
cartoon/comic strip
newspaper article
dialogue
play/skit
editorial
notes to/from the teacher
eulogy
autobiography
speech
tabloid article
police report
flashback
advertisement
children’s book
biography
scrapbook page
resume
memory
* These are simply suggestions. If you have other ideas, please feel free to experiment.
One final key to the multigenre narrative is that it does not include expository bits to connect the
genres—each piece should be self-evident as to its connection with the overall purpose without a
narrator’s voice to articulate that connection (see examples).