Multi-Genre Senior Narrative

Purpose: To use multiple genres of writing to tell your story in a unique and compelling way

Audience: Your teacher and anyone else with whom you’d like to share your story. An opportunity to share your pieces with the senior class will be available before the end of the year.

What it is: Using multiple genres of writing, this narrative is all about you. It’s about conveying some aspect of yourself or some memory or story about yourself through different genres in a collection of vignettes.

A vignette is a self-contained piece of writing; it makes a point on its own. So your multiple genre narrative will have multiple vignettes written in different genres. There’s no set format for how you put together the vignettes; it’s up to you. You decide how to present your story. Written messages come in a multitude of forms: newspaper articles, poetry, prose, song lyrics, e-mails, postcards, business letters, blog entries, etc. Any genre, any style of writing will work for each vignette. It’s your job to use those forms and choose those that will best convey your story. Ultimately you decide how many vignettes you need to tell your story as well as how many per page. The layout is completely up to you. However, there needs to be cohesiveness, a connection, a theme that ties all of the vignettes together to create a compelling multiple genre narrative.

Remember, a good story has a heartbeat, a pulse, a purpose. It has a beginning, middle, and end that develops and builds tension in order to propel your reader to the last page, to the last line, to the last word of the story. So you need to ask yourself: What do I want to convey about myself? How will multiple genres help me to do that?

What it isn’t: It’s not a collection of newspapers articles, photographs, diary entries, or letters gathered about you. It’s not someone else’s writing, someone else’s news report, diary entry or letter about you.

IT IS NOT A SCRAP BOOK!!

It’s not using every single space on a page. It’s not double spacing every line. It’s not indenting every paragraph. It’s not even about thesis statements or topic sentences or five-paragraph structure.

Requirements

  • Opening Letter / Prologue / Preface

Your narrative needs to begin with an address to your reader. This address can be written as a letter, a prologue or a preface. The purpose is to TELL what you SHOW in the narrative. This is your chance to set up what is to follow. Explain your SO WHAT, WHAT, and HOW. Tell your readers what you want them to get out of your narrative. So what did you hope to accomplish? So what do you want them to realize or know about you once they’ve read your narrative? What genres did you use and why? What is your repetend/motif and how does it connect your pieces together?

  • Genres

A genre is simply a type, a category or a class of writing. There are many different types of writing. This narrative incorporates a variety of genres to tell your personal story.

  1. You need to include a minimum of four (4) different genres in your narrative. Any written genre is acceptable. We will discuss in class the variety of styles from which you may choose.
  2. When choosing a genre to tell your story, consider the purpose of each genre. Consider time period. Consider how the reader will receive the information via that genre. Song lyrics are generally received differently than a news flash. Be thoughtful with your selection. Song lyrics are generally received differently than a news flash. Be thoughtful with your selection. Try out different genres for each moment, each scene in your story. See which works best. Experimentation is the key to making each genre work in and of itself and as a collection for the whole narrative.
  • Repetend

A repetend is a motif or a recurring pattern that serves to link your vignettes together. Repetend could be a repeated genre, idea, pattern, etc.

  • Length

There is no specified length. Your story is finished when it’s finished. Quality is more important than quantity. However, most students usually compose multiple genre narratives that are anywhere from 10 to 50 pages in length. Remember, multiple genre narratives use the white space on each page with effect and purpose. Every line on every page does not have to be filled. Instead, the arrangement of words on each page, on the white space of the page, is significant when composing a multiple genre narrative.

List of Possible Genres

advertisementfablepersonal narrative

arrest warrantfriendly letterpersuasive essay

billboardgreeting cardpicture book story

book/movie reviewhaikupost card

bumper stickerhow-to-articleprayer

business letterinfomercialpreface or forward

cartooninterview transcriptproduct evaluation

college application essayjob applicationproduct jingles

commercial scriptjob manualpsychological profile

cover letterjournal entrypublic announcement

declaration of warlegendreceipt

deedletter of complaintrecipe

descriptionletter of recommendationrejection letter

dialoguelove letterresume

dictionary entriesmemoscene from a TV show

directionsmenuscreenplay

editorialmonologuescript of a telephone call

e-mailnews articletext message (with a key!)

epitaphnews feature articlesermon

eulogynewscaster scriptsonnet

eviction noticenursery rhymesspeech

extended metaphorobituarytravel log

Can you think of 10 other genres?

*Your narrative will remain private unless YOU allow it to be shared. After your grade appears in the grade book, you should pick up your project from the box in your class. Note: any narratives left after the end of the year will be used as samples for future students.

Rubric

12th Grade – Multiple Genre Senior Narrative

8-9 These scores are for papers in which excellent content and impressive writing reveal the writer’s ability to compose multi-genre narrative pieces that express personal experiences, epiphanies, expectations, etc. pertaining to the senior year or the student’s life. These papers express ideas clearly and with stylistic maturity. They accomplish the following:

  • Begin with an opening letter that draws the reader in, introduces the main ideas (So What) of the narrative and clearly identifies the structure including use of repetend, genres and climax or turning point.
  • Contains a creative and insightful title
  • Follows a narrative outline: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, conclusion
  • Contains a minimum of 4 different genres: each portrays an authentic look and sound, each is a self-contained vignette of writing that work together to create a unified story
  • Demonstrates thoughtful consideration of placement of genres within the paper and upon each page
  • Utilizes white space for stylistic and aesthetic effect to extend meaning
  • Portrays evident tone changes as the story progresses into the rising action, climax and conclusion
  • Tone changes are clarified through the consistent use of a creative repetend
  • Convey an authentic, recognizable and unique voice
  • Reflects consistent control over the elements of effective writing, particularly diction, syntax and structure
  • Pieces use showing more than telling (when appropriate due to the genre choice)
  • Imagery is used to paint a clear picture for the reader (when appropriate due to the genre choice)
  • Reflects careful proofreading and attention to detail in construction and neatness

6-7 These scores are for papers that are somewhat similar to but not as strong as the 8-9 papers. These papers demonstrate the writer’s ability to express ideas clearly but with less maturity, control, authenticity, thoroughness or creativity than the top papers and may contain minor flaws in writing

5 This score is for papers that demonstrate an accumulation of the following traits

  • An understanding of the assignment but not a full portrayal of the story, often with vague, superficial, limited vignettes which reflect flaws in genre authenticity
  • Missing or incomplete opening letter or preface
  • Fewer than 4 distinct genres
  • Lack of or a vague theme
  • Lack of or an ineffective repetend or motif between vignettes
  • Writing that conveys a story but one that is not as well-conceived, organized, or developed as the upper level papers
  • Writing that lacks an authentic, recognizable and unique voice
  • Writing that lacks stylistic maturity with little or ineffective attempt to use varied syntax and precise diction to achieve a specific purpose

3-4 These scores are for papers that compound the weaknesses of a 5 in any or all of the following ways:

  • Weak control over the elements of good writing including, diction, syntax, and structure
  • Failure to demonstrate a complete understanding of the assignment
  • Genre pieces that do not look or sound authentic
  • Little or no connection between vignettes
  • Lack of a theme or overall meaning and purpose for the paper
  • Recurrent stylistic flaws: spelling, punctuation, grammar and usage

1-2 These scores are for papers that fail to respond to the prompt

  • Distortion or misapplication of the assignment
  • Serious problems with diction, syntax and structure that show an egregious disregard for strong writing techniques
  • Lack of clarity, paper does not have a purpose or story
  • Such a brief collection of vignettes or pieces that are so brief that student’s writing ability cannot be identified