The Multi-Genre Paper.

To start, your multi-genre paper will focus around one topic. Pick a topic that is important to you. It can be something personal, like a family tradition, a sibling rivalry, or a difficulty in your past or present. Topics can also be historical – people or events from the past. Or, they can be something that you are interested in, like a sport or activity. Be sure your topic can hold weight, it’ll need to incorporate creative non-fiction, poetry, fiction/dialogue, and non-fiction/research. So, you’re locker combination is not a good topic. The rivalry with your big brother who consistently pushes you into your locker, is. Here are some examples of strong topics:

Personal/Family Triumphs Teenage Issues (love, depression, conflict, success) Celebrities, Sports Icons, Historical Figures Science Related Topics (earthquakes, cancer, microbes) Triumph over Difficulty Personal Loss Historical Events Or something other.

Once you have your topic, you’ll need to choose your genres. We’ll be covering the broad genres of creative non-fiction, poetry, fiction/dialogue, and non-fiction/research, and we’ll cover many smaller options within those large genres. You can also include artwork (drawing, painting, photography) as one of your four genres. Here are options for your genres:

Creative Non-Fiction Storyo Diary Entryo Personal Letter

Poemo Narrative Poemo Lyric Poemo Haikuo Photograph Poemo Prose Poemo Two Voice Poemo Or any other poetic form

(or make one up). Fiction Story

o Sensory Detail Storyo Descriptive Paragraph

Selection of Dialogueo Actual Conversationso Fictional Conversationso Monologue (internal /

external)o Dialogue

Non-Fiction Reportingo News Reporto Essay

Excerpt of Researcho Photographs with

Captionso Timelineo List of Facts

Or something other.

You will choose at least 4 of the above genres to explore your 1 topic. The only caveat is you have to have at least one non-fiction report or excerpt of research, using at least 2 sources (this will include a bibliography page). A successful project will explore your topic from different angles, while maintaining a cohesive thought throughout. Be creative, explore, and synthesize your imaginative process into a coherent, forceful presentation of a topic. This is a report, so entertain, engage, and persuade your audience. And, of course, have fun.