This assignment is adapted from Cathy Fleischer and Sarah Andrew-Vaughan, Writing Outside Your Comfort Zone (Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH, 2009), 65-68.
In your experience as a reader and a writer, you’ve likely encountered more genres than even you realize. It’s also likely that you’re drawn to certain genres while you shy away from others. Because we each have distinctive experiences with the many genres we encounter, we have different levels of comfort with each genre. In this project, you will identify genres that you find personally challenging: genres you are not particularly familiar with, that might intimidate you, or that you tend to avoid. From these, you will select one genre that you have not heard about or that you do not ordinarily choose to write in but would like to learn more about. The Unfamiliar Genre Project asks you to investigate, read in, and write in that genre over the next few weeks. The project has several objectives. You will learn to study genres (which you can apply to future genres you will encounter); think metacognitively about your research process; apply your research in creating something you might otherwise have found intimidating or difficult; and gain experience in teaching others. You’ll also read and analyze various types of text; practice writing in multiple genres and in response to real-world writing situations; conduct basic research; and make appropriate decisions about content, form, and presentation.
So, beyond this guide, what can we do for you? We can help you tackle these elements of your assignment:
After you have researched your unfamiliar genre, you will choose seven high caliber texts to include in an annotated bibliography. You’ll include at least four (4) “how-to” pieces about your genre and at least five (5) good examples of writing in your genre.
You're also responsible for a presentation.
Processually, you will also be keeping a research journal and writing a reflective process letter.
Each of these tasks requires you to think, make choices about what you want to research and read about, and then show your process and progress as you go and at several key junctures. Librarians and the Library can help you with each of these - even just a few minutes talking can help you frame your thoughts and query process better.
Have you used Omnia? It's the default search on the Library's homepage, and is a great place to begin your genre research and resource gathering. We can help get you going here. Browse around the guide, chat with us, or swing by one of the Library's help desks.
You can use the Library and its resources to explore "what's out there" for your topic. Part of this process of exploring what has been or is already being said - the existing conversation, so to speak - is that you can further refine your question as you move through it.
Step 1: Choose your terms
If you're looking for general information about what makes a genre "a genre," you can try looking up some basic "research starter" pages by typing in just the genre name, for example, "autobiography." Research starters will give you a run-down of the basics and point you in the right direction.
Use the advanced search when you have more sophisticated queries. For example, if you are looking for work that examines different themes within a specific genre, you might work with the terms "autobiography" and "political OR politicians" - using different fields, of course!
Also, remember that you can control where terms occur by limiting your search to "title" or "abstract."
Step 2: Examine your results
You'll see a variety of source types and variations on your search term reflected in your results. Examine them! Do any seem more germane to what you're thinking about than others?
What SUBJECT HEADINGS do you see in your results? These can be added to your search, or you can just follow those headings as links to other, similar resources.
What SOURCE TYPES do you notice?
Step 3: Modify your search