Multigenre
I think the concept of a "multigenre paper" is fascinating.
It certainly caters to more diverse student knowledge than confining student assignments to create one singular type of paper. I reflect back on many (if not all) of the papers I wrote in high-school - they were all informational/research papers. The thought of writing anything resembling a creative piece, especially in my college credit courses, was a foregone conclusion. We were taught to write in one kind of way - this one style of writing would provide "all we need" in our academic careers moving forward.
Somehow I wound up specializing in creative writing during my undergrad. I remember taking my first poetry course during my freshman year and falling in love with it. I had never done any form of creative writing before, save for trying to write lyrics for my pseudo-christian metalcore band at the time (don't ask). I had never learned these skills, so I was far behind my fellow classmates, but learning them was something that I took with me for the rest of my academic career. Why aren't these creative writing skills not valued more? Why is research and academic tone at the forefront of what society deems to be important?
I look at the examples from the Romano article, specifically the one with the John Lennon poem at the beginning of the essay, and wonder why this is a taboo practice. I also think a great deal about my own writing as it currently exists for many of my "academic" papers and reflections thus far in the program - I have a far more enjoyable time writing these pieces in a conversational tone with fluctuations in grammatical accuracy and language usage than I do ascribing to a certain technical rigor that lends itself to the most inaccessible academic philosophical texts. There has got to be a balance.
For my question this week (which I've sort of stated before) - how do we adequately blend these creative and academic values in a way that is constructive but also allows students to jump through the state standardized hoops?
For my resource, I heard this mentioned in class the other day but I wanted to link it here to make sure people know it exists: Teachers Pay Teachers is an excellent hub to gather lesson plans if you are in a bind.
It certainly caters to more diverse student knowledge than confining student assignments to create one singular type of paper. I reflect back on many (if not all) of the papers I wrote in high-school - they were all informational/research papers. The thought of writing anything resembling a creative piece, especially in my college credit courses, was a foregone conclusion. We were taught to write in one kind of way - this one style of writing would provide "all we need" in our academic careers moving forward.
Somehow I wound up specializing in creative writing during my undergrad. I remember taking my first poetry course during my freshman year and falling in love with it. I had never done any form of creative writing before, save for trying to write lyrics for my pseudo-christian metalcore band at the time (don't ask). I had never learned these skills, so I was far behind my fellow classmates, but learning them was something that I took with me for the rest of my academic career. Why aren't these creative writing skills not valued more? Why is research and academic tone at the forefront of what society deems to be important?
I look at the examples from the Romano article, specifically the one with the John Lennon poem at the beginning of the essay, and wonder why this is a taboo practice. I also think a great deal about my own writing as it currently exists for many of my "academic" papers and reflections thus far in the program - I have a far more enjoyable time writing these pieces in a conversational tone with fluctuations in grammatical accuracy and language usage than I do ascribing to a certain technical rigor that lends itself to the most inaccessible academic philosophical texts. There has got to be a balance.
For my question this week (which I've sort of stated before) - how do we adequately blend these creative and academic values in a way that is constructive but also allows students to jump through the state standardized hoops?
For my resource, I heard this mentioned in class the other day but I wanted to link it here to make sure people know it exists: Teachers Pay Teachers is an excellent hub to gather lesson plans if you are in a bind.
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