By Tom Romano

                                                    So what is this book about?

       "Blending Genre, Altering Style: Writing Multigenre Papers" is a book by a teacher and written for teachers.  It serves as a practical and valuable resource for language arts teachers interested in tackling a new approach to writing that moves beyond traditional expository lessons.  In this book, Romano discusses everything from the multifaceted definition of multigenre writing to the variety of characteristics that embody a multigenre composition.  In each chapter, explanations are supported with real student examples - proof that multigenre writing is indeed possible in the classroom.  All that is required is a desire to write.

                                                                             In the Words of Tom Romano...

•   "Each genre is a color slide, complete in itself, possessing its own satisfying composition, but also working in concert with the others to create a single literary experience" (4).

•  "Instead of explaining or analyzing as paradigmatic knowing does, narratice knowing renders experience or phenomenon.  Narrative knowing shows.  We read a novel and leave the world.  We read a poem and feel a sharp, emotional surge.  We see a painting and meld into it.  We dream of falling and jolt ourselves awake" (22).

• "I tell my students that by far the most important part of any piece of writing is the beginning.  Those first words, phrases, sentences make or break the piece.  Writers have one chance to make a first impression.  They need to make a good one that pulls the reader forward" (41).

• "The multigenre paper offers students the opportunity to take part in the production of texts that are driven by narrative thinking, to try out the lenses of poets, fiction writers, playwrights, and artists right in the middle of expository school, long after formal education has turned them toward genres of paradigmatic thought and away from genres that use narrative to think and reveal experience. One day our students will take jobs in education, auto repair, business, industry, government, manufacturing, sales, law, medicine.  No matter what professions they enter, facts and analysis are not enough" (57).

• "Expressive writing ought to be the rule for multigenre writers...Students use expressive writing to survey the terrain of their knowledge, to ramble about with language, to locate significant issues, and to pull to consciousness what they know but have forgotten" (138).

• "In the end when we evaluate student work, we are left with who are are, the culture we're trying to maintain in our classroom, our own history as writers, institutional pressures, and the undeniable fact of each student's individuality...We offer students strategies and genres to try. We have students share the gold of their imaginations in class - and the instructive dross as well.  We work hard to create a classroom synergy that makes creativity boil and bubble.  And I can't grade students' multigenre papers without considering - in addition to their accomplishment - the present development, their degree of good faith effort, and the learning culture of my classroom" (170).

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Romano, Tom. (2000). Blending genre, altering style: Writing multigenre papers.

    Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers, Inc.