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8.3: Multi-modal,-Genre, and -Vocal

  • Page ID
    132196
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    multi-modal,-genre, & -vocal

    Let’s start with the definitions, although you can probably guess by the word “multi” that this kind of creative writing combines many elements, modes, voices, and genres: 

    • Multi-Genre: Multiple genres working together toward one common theme or topic. 

    • Multi-Modal: Multiple modes (audio, visual, and text) working together toward one common theme or topic. 

    • Multi-Vocal: Multiple voices speaking to one theme or topic in a piece of writing or a in a presentation. 

    A Multi-Genre Sample would look like this: The topic might be to research global warming. A multi-genre project covering this topic would contain an introduction, then perhaps a chart of temperatures at the North Pole over a span of decades. This might be followed by a scientific study of ocean levels over time. That study might be followed by a story from someone who has lived near the North Pole and what they've witnessed with the polar ice caps. 

    • A personalized multi-genre project would contain genres showing off my personality. I might Multi-Genre use my favorite Beck song along with a story that explains my obsession with creativity and surrealism. I could create a cartoon of myself, too, and write or find a poem that reflects who I am. 

    A Multi-Modal Sample would look like this: If we use the same topic of global warming, this kind of project would include an introduction via Powerpoint with music in the background that contains lyrics about the earth and taking care of it, etc. Then, instead of multiple genres on the slides of the Powerpoint, this project would contain visuals of global warming, including photos from the North Pole along with various charts. 

    • A personalized multi-modal project would contain photographs of my life with audio of my favorite song or maybe me reciting a poem I've written. The poem - the text mode - could be placed alongside the photographs or by themselves on blank slides of a presentation. 

    A Multi-Vocal Sample would look like this: Let's stick with global warming as a topic one last time. This kind of project would showcase different voices about the topic, so perhaps a student completing this project would interview a few different science teachers about their viewpoints on the topic. This project could also include the student writer's voice, and other students who have some knowledge on the topic.

    • A personalized multi-vocal project would contain voices showing off my personality. This Multi-Vocal means I could interview people about myself or create separate imaginary voices of my personality: "the nerd" could tell a story, "the oldest sister" could tell a story, and "the athlete" could tell another story.

     

    tips for writing multi-modal/genre/vocal:

    • CITE SOURCES! Anything that doesn't come from your own brain needs to be cited somewhere in the project. This is typical for all writing.

    • Keep your voice authentic. 

    Connect the pieces well. Make sure the reader can see why you've used a chart or a certain song or a specific voice in any project. 

    a list of various writing genres

    • Journal Entries

    • Personal Letter

    • Greeting Card

    • Schedule or To Do List

    • Inner Monologue

    • Classified or Personal Ads

    • Personal Essay or Autobiography

    • Philosophical Questions

    • Top Ten List

    • Glossary or Dictionary

    • Poetry

    • Song Lyrics

    • Business Letter

    • Biographical Summary 

    • Transcript of an Interview

    • Speech or Debate

    • Historical Times 

    • Context Essay

    • Textbook Article 

    • Science Article 

    • Business Article

    • A Report

    • Lesson Plan

    • Encyclopedia Article 

    • Short Scene from a Play with Notes for Stage Directions

    • Dialogue of a Conversation 

    • Short Story

    • Invitation 

    • Magazine Story

    • Ghost Story

    • Myth or Fairy Tale

    • Talk Show Panel 

    • Recipe or Menu

    • Classroom Discussion 

    • Character Analysis

    • Case Study

    • Comedy Routine or Parody

    • Picture book

    • Chart or Diagram

    • Brochure Newsletter

    • Timeline

    • Map 

    • TV Ad or Infomercial

    • Travel Brochure

    • How to Guide

    • Receipts

    an example of multi-genre:\(^{89}\)

    To the People Who Care to Read this,

    Maybe I should start with this: I have always liked school. I have always liked learning, sitting and taking in whatever knowledge my teachers could plop into my head, and I have loved creating. I live in my head - letting my thoughts grow into creative, crazy ideas. And as Steve Ward, one of my undergraduate professors, said: It is in the process of creating where we learn the most. Not in the product.”

    my whole being is a dark chant
    which will carry you
    perpetuating you
    to the dawn of eternal growths and blossomings
    in this chant i sighed you sighed
    in the chant
    i grafted you to the tree to the water to the fire.

    My process, as he mentioned, began as a junior in high school. That is where my need, my desire, to compose started really. I had a small book I’d been writing, and maybe there is a distinct moment in English class where “it all started.”

    10 Nov 93

    Trudy is telling me about her boyfriend AGAIN (sheesh) and sex… blahblahblah who knows. I’m trying to pay attention as geeky as that f##king is. Morris just said something about Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson and transcendentalism. I am super curious. Who are these guys anyhow? What is this all about?

    I would sit hunched over in class and highlight their words. 

    “What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

    Oddly, at that time, I put my passion with words on the back burner. That same year, I took drafting technology classes at NDSCS and fell in love with the designs of floor plans. I urged my parents to allow me to go to North Dakota State University, but not because I wanted to be a writer - because I thought I wanted to be an architect. I thought I wanted to design houses, not sentences or lessons. I wanted to mimic my dad, with his career in construction.

    life is perhaps
    a long street through which a woman holding a basket
    passes everyday
    life is perhaps
    a rope with which a man hangs himself from a branch

    Then, during my freshmen year of college, depression hit once again just like it had my freshman year of high school. Suddenly, I questioned everything. I went on a bagel-a-day diet. I napped with a growling stomach and skipped classes. 

    But, slowly, I met people, fell for boy, and tried with all my might to reach out of a hole that I had jumped into.

    life is perhaps a child returning from school.
    life is perhaps lighting up a cigarette
    in the narcotic repose between two love-makings
    or the absent gaze of a passerby
    who takes off his hat to another passerby
    with meaningless smile and a good morning.

    "They" say if you want to see change in yourself, fall in love. Love is insane that way, I guess. So, in Mason, I found parts of myself that I seemed to have lost after high school. My goofiness and my femininity. 

    Unfortunately, he gave me a false sense of security. I started to depend on him. My studies started to lack, and even though I changed my major to English Education, I still felt unsure about my future. My mother couldn't understand why I wanted to be a teacher rather than an architect, and Mason looked at my writings and wondered why I didn't sound more mature. The only people, at that time, that seemed to have faith in me and my abilities were me, my siblings, and my father.

    life is perhaps that enclosed moment
    when my gaze destroys itself in the pupil of your eyes.
    and it is in the feeling
    which i will put into the Moons impression
    and the Nights perception
    in a room as big as loneliness
    my heart
    which is as big as love
    looks at the simple pretexts of it happiness
    at the beautiful decay of flowers in the vase
    at the sapling you planted in our garden
    and the songs of canaries
    which sing to the size of the window.
    ah
    this is my lot

    Teaching was and is still my religion (“something one believes in and follows devotedly; a point or matter of ethics or conscience”). I told this to the people in Battle Lake, MN as they interviewed me a day in May of 1999, weeks after graduation. All I know is that they liked me enough to hire me on the spot.

    my lot is
    a sky which is taken away at the drop of a curtain
    my lot is going down a flight of disused stairs
    to regain something amid putrefaction and nostalgia
    my lot is sad promenade in the garden of memories
    and dying in the grief of a voice which tells me

    I really, truly started to find myself in Battle Lake. Mason had ditched me, yet I found myself alone in a new world - in a relatively new job, with new students, and a new found freedom. Lots of soul-searching occurred that summer before I began teaching. Slowly, he left my mind, and peace entered. But being alone has always been easy for me. I could do the Walden thing.

    “Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.”

    – Henry David Thoreau

    I could live alone on a lake without much contact with people and be OKAY. So, in my happy solitude, I threw my passions and energy into my teaching, into getting to know my students.

    i love
    your hands. i will plant my hands in the garden
    i will grow i know i know i know
    and swallows will lay eggs
    in the hollows of my ink-stained hands.

    I struggled. I went home at 4:30 most afternoons and would sleep until the next morning. My efforts seemed to be defeating me. And besides all that, my social life was lacking. The school wanted X; the students needed Y. My life yearned for Z. I kept trying to keep me above water.

    i shall wear
    a pair of twin cherries as earrings
    and i shall put dahlia petals on my fingernails

    But I couldn't keep up the facade for long. I had to defend myself to many people yet wanted to teach with my liberal ways. Well, life doesn't work out that way – a person doesn’t always get her way. Suddenly, in March, I got the letter from the superintendent asking me to meet with him and the principal. Female intuition kicked in. I was about to get canned.

    In pure shock, I sat there as he told me that I, Sybil Priebe, someone who ALWAYS reached her goals, always had done everything RIGHT in her whole life, had, in fact, not added up to "district standards" as a teacher. 

    But I knew who I was, and I was not about to be defeated. So that same day, after writing an email to all my family and friends, I took out the Graduate School application that I had hidden in my desk. I filled out the missing parts, found some sample writings in my file cabinet, and used the postage from the school that was about to screw me over to mail it up to North Dakota State University. I would return to the campus that challenged me in the first place.

    there is an alley
    where the boys who were in love with me
    still loiter with the same unkempt hair
    thin necks and bony legs
    and think of the innocent smiles of a girl
    who was blown away by the wind one night.
    there is an alley
    which my heart stolen
    from the streets of my childhood.
    the journey of a form along the line of time
    inseminating the line of time with the form
    a form conscious of an image
    coming back from a feast in a mirror.

    In graduate school, I found my path, my lot. I wanted to teach college freshmen – fresh meat – fresh minds. Others thought I should go on to get my Ph.D., but I knew that wasn’t what was next. I also didn’t think returning to my hometown was next for me, but it worked. And it worked well.

    I am lucky enough to know that teaching and writing is where I want to be. I foresee many more struggles, but I am willing to not let them get me down. I will not let people make me question who I am. I know. And only I know.

    and it is in this way
    that someone dies
    and someone lives on.
    no fisherman shall ever find a pearl in a small brook
    which empties into a pool.
    i know a sad little fairy
    who lives in an ocean
    and ever so softly plays her heart into a magic flute
    a sad little fairy
    who dies with one kiss each night 
    and is reborn with one kiss each dawn.

    Sincerely,
    Sybil 
     

    Genres used: Letter, Poem, Journal Entry, Quotes, and a Definition

    Works Cited

    Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Emerson: Quotes.” Transcendentalists.com. Accessed 11 Apr 07. http://www.transcendentalists.com/emerson_quotes.htm

    Farrokhazad, Forugh. “Another Birth.” Poem. ForughFarrokhazad.org. Last updated 30 March 07. Accessed 11 Apr 07.            <http://www.forughfarrokhzad.org/sele...ctedworks1.asp

    Priebe, Sybil. Journal Entry. 23 March 94.

    “Religion.” Dictionary.com. 13 Nov 07. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/religion.

    Thoreau, Henry David. “Thoreau: Quotes.” Transcendentalists.com. Accessed 11 Apr 07. http://www.transcendentalists.com/thoreau_quotes.htm

    Ward, Steve. Lecture. World Literature Class. North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND. 10 Dec 97.

     

    student example(s):

    <Provided by student(s) someday>
     

    questions / activities.

    <Students might be assigned – as part of the final project? – to create questions and activities for chapters that do not contain those pieces quite yet.>

     

    HERE IS THE PRACTICE PROJECT = 

    Create a multi-genre piece or a multi-vocal piece or a multi-modal piece. OR create something that fits experimental literature. Use the details, content, and explanation in these chapters to understand these genres and their “required” elements.


    \(^{89}\)This multi-genre example comes from Sybil Priebe and is licensed CC-BY-NC-SA.


    This page titled 8.3: Multi-modal,-Genre, and -Vocal is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Sybil Priebe (Independent Published) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.