Multigenre Research Project Essays - Narratology, Writing, Knowledge

Multigenre Research Project Purpose: To use a mix of academic, trade, and popular sources to create a coherent "argument" about your topic and to use critical thinking skills and methods of inquiry to find appropriate research to support your argument. Refer to chapters about research in Norton. Audience: Your paper should be geared toward an academic audience. Genre: You will be able to choose three of the five genres. You must use one genre of exposition and one visual. Stance: Your stance is one that is informed, formal, and one that is making an argument. Media/Design: You will be able to manipulate media and design to suite your purpose and genre. The guidelines apply to a typed paper (page length); however, you may choose to do a multi-media paper which would either be in the form of a web-page or a Power Point presentation. The text in these choices should be equivalent to ten double spaced pages. The multi-media project would also have academic exposition as well as visuals. What is a multi-genre essay? It's a collection of pieces written in a variety of genres, informed by your research on a particular subject, that presents one or (more likely) more perspectives on a research question or topic. A multi-genre paper is personal, creative, and can't be copied from some other source. It involves you, as a writer, making conscious decisions about what information is important and how it should be presented to the reader. (from http://www.sheboyganfalls.k12.wi.us/cyberenglish9/multi_genre/ multigenre.htm #Types%20of%20Genres:) Why use more than one genre? There are ideas and perspectives that cannot be achieved through a linear expository paper. Consequently, when one uses more than one genre, more of the research found can be shared. A multigenre project is a compilation of research on a given topic presented in a way that is specific to the writer. We will talk about a number of different genres and we will look at examples of multigenre papers. These papers also mix academic writing and less formal writing together giving you a way to bridge yourself into "academic-ease." The Assignment Process: 1) Pick a topic that interests you. Narrow it down and create a guiding research question(s). Example: Topic: Harlem Renaissance Research question: How did the writer's of the Harlem Renaissance shape the movement? 2) Start researching your topic. You want to find information that highlights what you think you want to say or that gives you a starting point. You may choose to do a project that is informative (i.e. states the facts, but is trying to answer some sort of research question) or you may choose to do a project that is persuasive in nature (i.e. it is still researched, but it has a more obvious bias). An example of the first choice is like the one given above. An example of the second choice would be to research an issue that is sided and to focus on one side of the issue. 3) Begin to put your research into different genres. Your topic will lend itself to specific genres. For example, if I were to write about the writers of the Harlem Renaissance, I might use poetry or another creative genre to present some of the information about the writers. The Assignment: Format - . Page length: 10 pages, not including title page, Table of Contents or Works Cited page. . Number of genres: at least five different genres, one must be expository prose (at least 3 pages) and one must be visual. . The paper must have a repetend (defined below). . The paper must have ten sources, four of which must be scholarly. . The paper must have a title page and the title should be a significant clue about what the paper is about; there is no page number on this page. . The paper must have a Table of Contents where genres are listed with their corresponding pages. . The paper must have a Preface of at least 150 words that clues the reader in to what you are going to be presenting. A preface is similar to an abstract. Essentially the preface summarizes your paper briefly to allow the reader to begin reading with more clarity. . The paper must have a Works Cited page and the sources must be cited in MLA format including in text citations. . The paper must have page numbers in the upper right hand corner. On page one, there is a number one. On the following pages, including the Works Cited page, there is