The Multi-genre Essay: Discovering the Millennium ...



English 101, Fall 2010

Instructor: Deborah Matayabas

The Multi-genre Essay:

Understanding Immigration Reform

Assignment

In 4-5 page argumentative essay, introduce, analyze, and evaluate immigration reform. Choose to defend or reject immigration reform through a collection of pieces, written or created, which represent different genres and reveal one or more perspectives on your topic. A multi-genre essay is personal and creative; therefore, it can not be copied from some other source. It involves you, as a writer, making conscious decisions about what information is important, and how it should be presented in order to convince the reader of your side of the argument. In addition to an introduction and a conclusion, this essay should include four segments that must be researched using the following variety of materials: (1) a film or documentary, (2) a written source by either a historian, an economist, or an activist, (3) an image of some kind, preferably a picture or painting, and (4) a poem or song. (If you have another idea for a segment, such as a response to a personal field experience, feel free to discuss it with us.) Each of the segments should address a larger theme you have chosen about immigration reform. A few examples include: the obstacles keeping the United States from accepting all immigrants, or the wisdom or practicality of immigration reforms, or perhaps the urgency of the situation addressed by politicians or humanitarians. Your most challenging task is to find a way to tie all of these segments together with a comprehensive thesis, and then to organize your segments into a coherent essay that flows smoothly between each of the segments using effective transitions.

Introduction

Using Enrigue’s Journey as a means to begin understanding your own thoughts and feelings toward immigration reform, develop an introductory paragraph describing “your journey” through the novel and analyze how the book helped shape or confirm your convictions. Establish the relevant historical context or background information of immigration. What does your reader need to know about the history of US immigration? Why are current immigration reform policies worth accepting or rejecting? Why is immigration reform important to Arizona, local communities, and to your audience? Complete the introduction with a well-developed thesis focusing on a specific area of immigration reform you plan to research.

Developing your Thesis

You must narrow your topic to a side of immigration reform that is manageable for your essay, but spending some time researching one or more sides may help you decide which will yield the best results. Brainstorming will be a crucial part of this process. If you have a topic in mind, I or one of the librarians can help you come up with ideas for the individual segments. Coming up with a thesis that can cover all your different ideas used in these response segments will play a big role in this paper’s success. Try to determine an organization for the segments that makes sense to you and that you can successfully convey to your reader. This might help you come up with a clear thesis, one that charts the progression of your essay.

The Individual Segments

Your responses to the different sources you chose will become the body paragraphs of your essay. Assignments described below will be required as part of the process grade and will be due in class at different intervals.

Film/Documentary: Your film can be a Hollywood movie or a documentary. Go to the Internet Movie Database () and try searching your topic by using a keyword search. You should also search the library database to find relevant films. Although some short summary or description is necessary to give the reader a full understanding of the visual images, your comments here should be mostly analytical and not just a plot summary of the film or a sequential description of a documentary. Stay alert to your reactions, thoughts, and feelings as you view the film or documentary.

Written Sources: Your written sources should be a book (you don’t have to read an entire book but at least enough of it to respond with some logical beginning and end point, such as a chapter or section of the book devoted to your topic), an acceptable magazine article (this would need to be a well-respected publication and the article should be 500+ words), and a journal article. Quoting relevant passages is essential to making your paragraph specific.

Picture or Painting: This might be a tough one, but try to apply some of the same analytical skills that you use to interpret literature when analyzing your image. Sometimes paintings or famous photographs are better to use because you can provide some background information on them, which helps give this segment a richer context. Then, like a piece of literature, begin to break down individual parts of the image and comment on them. Obviously, you will want to comment on artistic choices such as the subject and its placement within the frame of the picture or painting, the style of presentation (color, black and white, thickness of paint, etc.), use of lighting and color, as well as the reaction the image stimulates in you as a viewer.

Poem or Song: Poetry and song lyrics often provide creative outlets to express feelings about controversial issues. Choose a poem/song that expresses feelings toward immigration addressed by your topic. Your response and interpretation of how the poem or song lyrics relate to your topic, as well as the writer’s attitude toward his subject will be important elements to include in your essay. Respond to such questions as -- What impact does this have upon you as reader/listener? Again, quoting relevant passages is essential to the successful exploration of your topic as it is expressed through one of these creative mediums.

Organizing Your Paper and Developing a Thesis

Once you have all of your segments written, you need to figure out a logical order for them and come up with a thesis that ties them all together. Perhaps the best way to write your thesis for this paper is to read all of the segments you have written and see if there is a common thread in your writing. What do you seem to be saying about your topic through the sub-themes of genre choices? What is your attitude towards it that emerges in the individual segments? What conclusions do I want my reader to come to?

An absolutely crucial component to the success of this essay is your ability to create smooth transitions between your segments so that the essay flows smoothly and comes across as a unified and coherent whole, and not individual parts that are just “stuck” together. It may help to review transitional words and phrases available online to find a variety of transitional phrases and expressions for effective ways to connect your paragraphs.

Note: *Various assignments, both in-class and outside of class, will connect to this assignment as research methods, documentation, and writing strategies are discussed in class. Therefore, it is important not to procrastinate. Please be alert to the assignments and due dates as they announced.

Due Date:

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