Benefits of The Multigenre Research Paper

I have to admit that before taking this course I had never heard of a multigenre research paper (mgrp).  When I saw it on the syllabus as one of our major writing assignments for the semester, I thought it was just like any other assignment professors put in the syllabus.  I did not really think about the meaning behind it or even what the title referred to.  Since reading chapters 1, 2, 3, and 6 in Allen's book and "The Donut House..." article, my information on the mgrp has grown immensely.  I now understand the many benefits behind it; the benefits are for elementary-aged students and not just graduate level adults.

One thing that really stuck out to me in Allen's piece was on page 1 when she states, "When given the chance to select their own topics to research, decide which genres to write in, and determine how they want to present their findings to an audience, students change.  They become empowered.  They assume ownership of their learning and display pride in showing off their accomplishments."  This quote embodies everything that I was having trouble with in the assignment of doing a mgrp.  Our professor gave us such freedom in picking a topic and also in picking the types of genres to present our topic in that I felt lost.  I was so frustrated that I did not have more guidelines as to what kind of topic to look for.  I became very pessimistic about the whole thing.  However, I learned that the reason she was doing this was to not limit our creativity and our imaginations; for almost two decades I am so used to having teachers assign me a topic and tell me in which format to write it in that I was thrown for a curve ball when our professor gave us free range.  However, I understand how for a child having free range is the way to go because it enables them to take ownership of their writing and feel a sense of pride and passion. 

I remember on the first day of class when Karen made us write a list of pieces of literacy we had made in the past couple of days.  The lists ranged from things like grocery lists, homework labels, balancing checkbooks, thank you cards, text messages, e-mails, etc.  This activity really made me realize that literacy is all around us and it does not have to come in the form of a book or magazine to be considered literacy.  In Powell and Davidson's piece entitled "The Donut House..." the authors claim that "[i]t is one of the paradoxes of schooling that the kinds of texts most privileged in schools are the ones least likely to be pursued once people leave schooling" (page 249).  This quote really resonated with me.  As a society we tend to value certain types of literacy more than others.  In schools, we think a research paper has more credibility than a narrative.  We often think comics have little credibility compared to classic novels.  However, I can not name one adult who has ever written a research paper after he or she has graduated from college.  And I know adults who read the comics every day in the newspaper but claim they do not have time to read a book.  So, to me, the mgrp makes sense by letting children choose their topic, the format of their research, as well as the genres of their presentation.