English 101: Genre Responses

A: A genre response is a piece of writing composed in response to a specific reading. The difference between a genre response and a more traditional reader response is that the writer molds the response in a specific genre (more about those below). We will do several of these in class that you may use to generate your quarter project's multigenre paper. Examples of young students composing genre responses can be found throughout Lois Burdett's children's version of A Midsummer Night's Dream (e.g. when the students write about part of the story in a new form, like a note from one character to another, or an escape plan, or a diary entry).

A: A genre response is always comprised of two parts: the response itself, and a "writer's note" that explains a little about the response.

A: There is no fixed or specified length for a genre response. However, the responses you write will always need to demonstrate two things. First, they must show an in-depth understanding of and engagement with one or more of the class readings. Second, they must demonstrate that the writer understands how the specific genre in which he or she is writing works (that is, its preferred conventions and modes of expressions).

A: The writer's note should do two things. First, it should tell what idea you were trying to get across, and what connection that idea had to the reading. Second, it should explain why you chose to deal with that idea in the genre you chose.

A: The following is a brief, and necessarily incomplete, list of genres that you might try using in your responses. You should always feel free to try things not listed here.

• letter
• email
• advertisement
• magazine article
• want ad
• news report
• poem
• dialogue
• speech
• play
• summary
• talk show
• class syllabus
• analysis
• sitcom
• movie review
• journal entry
• book cover
• CD liner notes
• fashion magazine article
• instruction manual
• teacher's paper comments
• advice column
• cartoon
• interview
• quiz
• menu
• recipe
• encyclopedia entry
• play-by-play
• essay
• ransom note
• radio broadcast
• tabloid article
• greeting card
• obituary
• eulogy
• thank you note
• grocery list
• map
• book jacket
• wanted poster
• diary entry
• post card
• eyewitness account
• lab analysis
• collage
• graph or chart
• cereal box
• instruction manual

A: No. The multi-genre paper may end up using many, some, a few, or none of the genre responses you write. Look in the course packet for examples of multi-genre papers to get a sense of how they work. From a reader's perspective, a multi-genre paper is a collection of short writings in a variety of genres that, when taken together, make a point or argument about an idea or issue that the writer wishes to explore. From the perspective of a writer (that's you!), a multi-genre paper is the opportunity to look at an idea or question that is raised in readings or discussions, and that you want to examine from a number of different perspectives and genres; the idea is to more fully explore and articulate the idea by seeing it in different ways. The genres will be framed by an introductory piece that prepares the reader to understand the genre pieces that follow, and an endnote that explains the background for each of the genre pieces within the paper. Again, referring to the examples in the course packet will help you see how these papers work.

A: The reasons are threefold. First, the multi-genre paper allows a writer to practice more than one kind of writing, and requires the writer to consider how specific forms of writing accomplish different ends. This ability to identify type of writing with its purpose or rhetorical function is a basic tenet of literary study. Second, since nearly all students in English 101 are preservice elementary school teachers, the multi-genre paper provides practice with the linking of critical thinking and creative expression; school-aged children are often required to write both creatively and critically (look in the state content standards for specifics). The multi-genre paper is an assignment model that can be adapted to grade-school students, who can use it to demonstrate their ability to write creatively and think critically. Finally, a well-constructed multi-genre paper can make the same points, criticisms, and arguments that a traditional analysis makes; it is simply in a different--neither better nor worse--format.

A: Here are some genre response possibilities for a few of the readings in the course:

• Classic Fairy Tales (any)
  
• Rewrite the tale from a first-person point of view, choosing any character as the one who narrates the action
• Update the tale by bringing the characters and/or events into the contemporary world
• Write the tale in the form of a newspaper article
• Write a menu for items at a restaurant in the land of fairy tales (think about such things as the witch in Hansel and Gretel or the kids in The Juniper Tree or Pippety Pew)
• Write the transcript of an episode of The Jerry Springer Show featuring some of the dysfunctional families featured in the fairy tales (e.g. the father-daughter problems in some of the Cinderella variants)
  
• Briar Rose
• Write an internal monologue that shows what Gemma is really thinking about as she speaks her final words to Becca
• Write the obituary for Gemma
  
• Write a diary entry for Stan that explores his feelings for Becca
• Write the phone conversation between Shana and Sylvia when they discuss Becca's trip to Poland
  
• "The Yellow Wallpaper"
• Write diary entries for John, the narrator's husband, showing a different perspective on the narrator's descent from sanity.
• Write a medical file entry on the narrator
• Highlight a number of words the narrator uses in the story that you find significant, and use those words in a free-verse poem that captures the narrator's feelings in the story
• Write an advertisement for a housekeeper/nurse whose responsibilities include caring for both the narrator and her baby
• "A Woman on a Roof"
• Write an internal monologue for one of the characters in the story whose thoughts we do not see (Stanley, the woman on the roof, Harry)
• Write a dialogue between the woman on the roof and the narrator in "Yellow Wallpaper"
• Write a letter from the woman on the roof to the construction company that employed Tom, Harry, and Stanley
• Write an advertisement for the clothing worn by the woman
• "First Shag in Ages"
• Write a description of what Dianne does during a typical school day
• Write what a sociologist or anthropologist might think about the scene in the "meat market" bar
• Write a play scene with Renton as a primary character, but with the setting changed to Chico
• Write an Oprah show scene with Dianne, the woman on the roof, and the narrator from "Yellow Wallpaper" as guests discussing women's rights
• Any story/poem/play:
• Write the obituary of a central character. The manner and time of death can be made up for you for any character still alive during the scope of the literary piece. Explore what about the character might be remembered after his or her death.
• Assume that you're an archeologist a couple thousand years in the future, and that you've uncovered the literary piece to which you're writing the genre response. What might an archeologist see in the literature? What might it tell the archeologist about the culture that produced the literature?
• Rewrite what you think is an important scene, event, etc. in the literary piece, using a different genre (e.g. you might rewrite a narrative in poetic form, or as a play scene) to showcase that important idea.
• Write a narrative of your own voice piecing together what you thought as you read the literary piece. For this, you might want to use as models the writings in Mosaic of Thought, in which the authors show us how they determined a personal meaning for a number of different readings.
• Rewrite all or part of the literary piece, changing some aspect of the piece that you find important, in order to explore the significance of that element. For instance, you might change the gender of a character, or an aspect of the setting (change the location, or the time period), and see what effect that change has on the literature.