This chapter provides an introduction to the concept of multigenre writing and explains methods of multigenre writing used in the field of medicine to create the concept of multigenre medicine. The authors share their stories using a multigenre format, which includes multiple perspectives and multiple writing styles such as linking personal narratives with academic research. Therefore, the reader not only learns about multigenre writing but also experiences it.
TopConnecting Multigenre Writing To Medicine
Because patients in a physical therapy clinic or other medical setting need to share their stories just like students in a writing classroom
Because everyone’s voice deserves to be heard
Because the first flash of insight that writers have can lead clinicians to a diagnosis and help them adjust a patient’s treatment plan
Because writing can heal people physically and emotionally
Because lives can be saved and people can be helped as a result of unexpected collaborations, such as an English professor working with a physical therapist.
Found Poem Multigenre Definition Using Tom Romano’s Quotes.
Writing is learned only through participation. Teachers who write and share their words assume a humane, participatory stance toward learning and teaching the craft of writing (1987, p. 43). The multigenre research paper I’ve described in this chapter requires that creativity and imagination be part of research (1995, p. 130). Multigenre papers defy most readers’ expectations. Multigenre writers, therefore, must be doubly careful to orient readers quickly and supply information that will help them build meaning the further they read (2000, p. 33). I’m a narrative creature. Through telling stories I experience the power of my voice and come to understand what the stories mean (2004, p. 29). Could they learn facts about their topic and combine those facts with imagination to render intellectual and emotional truths? (2008, p. 183). I want to know the ins-and-outs of students’ learning and creative journeys. I want students to be academically responsible and practice the habit of scholarly integrity. So I ask them to include endnotes (2013, p. 153).
Multigenre Instructions
Write, and then share
Participate in your own story
Dovetail creativity, imagination, and facts
As well as research and experience
To tell the intellectual and emotional truth
Defy expectations
But be responsible
Tell your story and find your voice
Voice Lessons
New insights are mine
(It’s my experience)
Take my turn to shine
(My truth is serious)
Future will be fine
(Speak from the page)
Leave the past behind
(My voice remains)
TopEnd Notes
Usually when people think of voice lessons, music comes to mind first. Writing voice shines through when writers, whether they are patients in a clinic or students in a classroom, follow the advice Goldberg (2007) gives, which is, “say what you want to say, not what you think you should say” (p. 2). Voice also influences how the writers in this book share their stories. As Goldberg (2013) advises writers, “you have to find the entry into what you know inside, the way to bring it out so people will listen” (p. 26). Sometimes this means sharing information through expository writing that you are used to reading in academic textbooks. Other times, however, it involves sharing information through narratives. The concept of voice in writing led to breakthroughs in the research Eric and Jen designed because it captured not just what physical therapy patients and college students said (technical writing) but also how they said it (artistic writing).
End notes for this piece are included but not musical notes, so feel free to imagine the music as you choose, either as a slow tempo ballad or a fast tempo rock song.
Here are the quotes that inspired the lyrics:
New insights are mine (It’s my experience)
Barbieri (1995): “All writing leads to insight and discovery, and revising offers opportunities to dig deeper, to refine thinking, to follow new trains of thought” (p. 25).
Take my turn to shine (My truth is serious)
Fletcher (2013): “Voice in writing has to do with a unique personality-on-paper” (p. 78)
Future will be fine (Speak from the page)
Murray (1985): “Voice allows the reader to hear an individual human being speak from the page” (p. 21).
Leave the past behind (My voice remains)
Graves (1994): “Voice is the imprint of ourselves on our writing” (p. 81).
TopMemories Of Marilyn
Winter in Kettering, Ohio was more brutal than usual this year. Marilyn Kepler Bird looked out the window of the hospital at the blizzard. She had been a patient in the hospital for some minor medical tests and felt ready to go home. However, no one was going home in this storm.