sarah andrew-vaughan and cathy fleischer researching ... · sarah andrew-vaughan and cathy...

ake out two different colored high-lighters and clear your desk ofeverything else, please,” I (Sarah)announce to a room of talkative

ninth graders. “We’re going to explore some of yourfears about writing today.”

Two students shoot worried looks across theroom while another pair simultaneously grin,knowing I’m up to something. As copies of the

introduction to our Unfamiliar-Genre Research Project circu-late through the room (see fig.1), I ask students to fold thehandout in half, hamburger-style, demonstrating with mycopy. The bottom half of thefront page consists of a three-column list of writing genres,a version of the list I will uselater in the year when I intro-duce the multigenre researchproject.

“So far this year, most ofyou have chosen to write ingenres that are either prettycomfortable for you or in gen-res that we worked on together

as a class. Today we’re going to start something a lit-tle different. For this next writing project, I wantyou to purposely choose another kind of genre towrite in—a genre that for some reason you findunfamiliar. Here’s how we’ll start: Using your high-

lighters, make a key in the margin. Use your darkercolor for genres you like or tend to write in and thelighter color for genres that are challenging or kindof scare you.” As I speak, I’m making my own keyon an overhead transparency of the handout.

“Please use your ‘like’ color to highlight allthe genres you like or tend to write in. Go aheadand work through the list now.” Students againshoot looks at each other, seeing what their friendsare marking. Soon, however, they’re busy at work,marking those genres they’ve been writing in formost of their lives. “When you finish, pick up yourother highlighter and mark the genres you tend toshy away from as well as those you’ve simply nevertried to write in. Not all of the items on your pagewill be highlighted, and that’s OK.”

Students keep looking at the list, occasionallyasking for clarification. One student asks, “What’sflash fiction?”

I open it up to the class. “Does anybodyknow? What does it sound like? Maybe that’s onethat is worth investigating.”

In this research project, I invite students toread, critically analyze, and experiment with writ-ing in a challenging or unfamiliar genre. I wantthem to honestly select a genre that is foreign orintimidating, so I repeatedly assure them through-out the process (and in the rubric) that this is pri-marily a research project, and although originalwriting in their chosen genre will be the center-piece of the presentation, the writing quality isonly worth a fraction of the final grade.

36 English Journal Vol. 95, No. 4 March 2006

Sarah Andrew-Vaughan and Cathy Fleischer ask their students to investigate a genre of writing thatthey find challenging or unfamiliar, recognize the characteristics that define the genre, and thenwrite an original piece in the genre. Students reflect on their process of inquiry throughout and gainconfidence by writing in a challenging form.

Sarah Andrew-Vaughan and Cathy Fleischer

Researching Writing: The Unfamiliar-Genre ResearchProject

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R E A D I N G , W R I T I N G , A N D R E - P R E S E N T I N G R E S E A R C H>

I want them to honestly

select a genre that is

foreign or intimidating,

so I repeatedly assure

them throughout the

process (and in the rubric)

that this is primarily a

research project, and

although original writing

in their chosen genre will

be the centerpiece of the

presentation, the

writing quality is only

worth a fraction of the

final grade.

EJ_March2006_B.qxd 2/13/06 9:03 AM Page 36

selson

Text Box

Copyright © 2006 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved.

37English Journal


FIGURE 1. Unfamiliar-Genre Research Project (Front Page)

Project Overview: Unfamiliar-Genre Research Project

After spending a semester in workshop, we’ve begun todiscover our strengths and preferences in reading andwriting. Because we each have distinctive experienceswith the many genres we encounter, it’s also true that wehave our own comfort levels with each genre. (Perhapsyou prefer to write fictional stories, or perhaps making upwhole stories from scratch seems impossible to you.) Inthis project, I will ask you to identify the genres that arepersonally challenging—genres you are not particularlyfamiliar with, that may intimidate you, or that you tendto avoid. From these, I would like you to honestly selectone genre that you do not ordinarily choose to write inbut would like to learn more about. This project asks youto investigate, read, and write in a genre that is personallychallenging. It has several purposes: to learn to studygenres (which you can apply to future genres you will en-counter, such as college and SAT essays) and to learnyour research process while using your research to createsomething you might otherwise think is too difficult.

Picking an Unfamiliar Genre

We’ll begin this project with honest soul-searching asyou pick a genre that challenges or intimidates you. Toensure that you pick a genre that is truly unfamiliar, restassured that the quality of the final piece will onlyaccount for a small part of your grade on the project;engaging in the research process and the reflectivejournal will constitute most of your grade. (See therubric.) A proposal in which you identify your challeng-ing genre along with an explanation of why you choseit and what you’d like to learn is due as you enter thelibrary for our presearch.

Here are some genres you might consider exploring.Don’t limit yourself to these!

Application • college• job• scholarship

Art commentarya BillBooks

• children’s book• cookbook• flip book• graphic novel• how-to book • instruction booklet• pop-up book• user’s manual

Brochure/pamphletClosing or opening argumentsConstitution (organizational)Critique of art/photographyDialogueEssay

• personal (college)• prose• literary criticism

EulogyGuide (e.g., citizen’s guide)Lab report

Last Will and TestamentLetter

• business• complaint• condolence• cover• letter to the editor• of recommendation• to representative

MemoirMicrofiction/flash fictionNewspaper/magazine

• news article• feature article• in-depth report• personality profile• obituary• opinion column• editorial• sports• review

• book• CD• movie• play

Novel or novellaParody

Poetry (many kinds—pick one)• ballad• cinquain• epic• free verse• haiku• ode• sestina• sonnet• two-voice• others!

Public service announcementRésuméScrapbookScript

• commercial (TV or radio)• monologue• one-act• puppet show• radio play• screenplay• skit• soliloquy

Short storySong (lyrics with music)Speech Vignette collection


“Now, read through the items you just high-lighted—the ones that intimidate or are unfamiliar toyou—and circle two or three that are interestingenough that you’re willing to learn more about them.”Discussion slowly breaks out as students contemplate,privately and aloud, whether they will choose a genrethat is truly unfamiliar or pick something “safe.” Tocapture this dilemma, I ask students to write aboutthe options they are considering and work through thepros and cons of each. I then use this opportunity tointroduce the research journal—a key component ofthe Unfamiliar-Genre Research Project—for which

they’ve just written the first entry. This journal entryalso has a second purpose: it becomes a prewrite fortheir research proposal, which they will later need toenter the library while they conduct a presearch toensure that they can find plenty of examples that theywant to read in their chosen genres. Thus, the projectbegins: a project that asks students to identify a genrethey find challenging, to gather and analyze modelexamples of that genre, to identify key characteristicsof that genre, to write in the genre, and to keep aresearch journal in which they think through the proj-ect and attempt various drafts.

38 March 2006

Researching Writing: The Unfamiliar-Genre Research Project

FIGURE 1. Continued (Back Page)

The Research Journal

Although research includes many steps, the order ofthese steps may vary, as in writing. To some extent, thisproject is intended to allow you to discover yourresearch process. You may want to jump right into adraft. You may prefer to begin by reading (and collect-ing) samples of your genre. Perhaps you will begin byjournaling: you might first deal with your fears by put-ting them to paper. Whatever your process,metacognition, thinking about your thinking, is animportant part of this research project. Throughout thisstudy, keep a journal—handwritten or typed, your pref-erence—of your experiences. Use this journal to keeptrack of your research strategy as well as your feelingsabout each stage of the work. You must write in thisjournal each time you work on the project.

Reading in Your Unfamiliar Genre

One part of your research in this genre study is simplyto read within the genre. Please limit yourself to pub-lished works (no student samples). As you are reading,collect the best five to ten samples you can find andanalyze how they were crafted. We’ll practice this inclass! You will compile these analytical notes in anannotated bibliography (again, we’ll learn all about thisin class), so, as you are reading, take notes on thewriter’s craft, structure, and strategies used in eachpiece. Remember to write down the information you’llneed for your bibliography in MLA style when you firstget the piece to save yourself the frustration of havingto go back for this information.

Writing in Your Unfamiliar Genre

The centerpiece of this project, of course, will be a fin-ished piece in your chosen (unfamiliar) genre. You musttake this piece through several drafts, including parent,peer, and teacher conferences (required). Before youactually get to your final piece, it’s likely that you willexperiment with the genre—you may have severalstarts before you write the piece you will finish for yourfinal project.

Reflective Letter

When you finish the best draft of your writing and asyou are compiling your research binder, take the timeto reread your research journal and reflect on yourexperience over these six weeks. Now read your bestdraft again, thinking about what you have learnedabout yourself as a reader, writer, and researcher. Withall this in mind, write a reflective letter explaining whatyou’ve learned about genre through this project andhow you’ve demonstrated your newfound knowledgein your best draft.

Research Binder

The final project will take the form of a research binder.It should be typed, organized, and easy to navigate.Your binder should include the following (make one tabfor each category):

• Your research (metacognition) journal, with anentry for each time you work on the project

• Your final piece, with a reflection

• Your experimental writing, all drafts, and all con-ference notes

• An annotated bibliography of five to ten of thebest samples you can find in the genre

Parent/Guardian Letter

As you know, I think it’s important to share your hardwork with your parents and guardians. When you arecompletely finished with your Unfamiliar-GenreResearch Project, share it with your parents orguardians and ask them to write a letter to you inresponse to your work.

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39English Journal


A Case for the Unfamiliar-Genre Research Project

This project has several purposes for high schoolstudents: to learn basic research strategies, toengage in a genre study while practicing strategiesreal writers use to approach new material, to iden-tify the processes we each use to learn about thatwhich is unfamiliar, and to use research to createsomething students might otherwise think is toodifficult.

Perhaps the most important quality of theUnfamiliar-Genre Research Project is that it asksstudents to use their research by experimenting withand drafting in the genre they have studied. Apply-ing their newfound knowledge is a critical stepbeyond research projects that only ask students topresent the information they’ve gathered. Actuallyusing the research, we know from Bloom’s taxonomy(Bloom, Masia, and Krathwohl), will cement theideas and strategies students encounter in this proj-ect into their memories. It will also provide studentswith the confidence of having “figured out” the con-straints and demands of particular genres, especiallywhen they next encounter challenging and perhapshigh-stakes genres, such as SAT essays or collegeapplications.

In contrast, the intention of the traditionalresearch project is too often limited to teaching stu-dents the research process, generally with the expec-tation that students know how to write in the“research paper” genre. Other alternative approachesto the research paper expand on the traditionalapproach: The I-Search paper as developed by KenMacrorie, for example, recognizes the need toengage students in a personally relevant and inter-esting topic; the multigenre research project asdeveloped by Tom Romano takes a further step byacknowledging that an extended essay is not theonly germane form in which to present one’s find-ings. Building on these alternatives, the Unfamiliar-Genre Research Project both incorporates theefficacy of these projects and extends them by askingstudents to use their findings and actually write inthe genre they’ve chosen to study.

An added attraction of the Unfamiliar-GenreResearch Project is that its topic is reading andwriting. The research topics English teachers offerstudents often have nothing to do with reading or

writing; this project shines a spotlight on Englishas a research subject.

Background

In a college classroom just ten miles down the road,preservice teachers are engaged in their version of theUnfamiliar-Genre Research Project. Cathy Fleischer,professor of English education at Eastern MichiganUniversity, began this project as a way for these soon-to-be teachers to think carefully about their writing aswell as to consider what it might be like for their futurestudents when they are asked (as students commonlyare) to write in a genre with which they aren’t familiar.

“How many of you have ever been told towrite in a genre when you didn’t feel very knowl-edgeable about that genre?” As almost all herstudents raise their hands,Cathy continues. “What didthat feel like? What did youwish you’d known about thegenre?” As students sharetheir experiences and theirwishes, she pushes them fur-ther. “How about now? Arethere still some genres youfeel challenged by? What arethose?” As students start toreel off a variety of genres, from sonnet to drama toanalysis to short story, they also begin to share theirdiscomfort in knowing they may soon have toinstruct students in the genres with which they feelmost challenged.

“How can I possibly teach poetry?” one studentcries out. “I hate poetry! And the time my eleventh-grade English teacher made me write a sonnet wasthe worst moment of my school life. I couldn’t get therhythm, I couldn’t get the rhyme, I couldn’t think ofanything to say, and I still don’t understand it. All Ilearned was that I hate Shakespeare!”

Thus, the college version of the Unfamiliar-Genre Research Project begins. Cathy also asks stu-dents to select a genre that they find challenging inorder to learn more about it—through research intothe genre and practice writing in it. And, like my stu-dents, Cathy’s students keep a research journal of theirexperience in which they reflect not only on their new-found knowledge of the genre but also on the experi-ence of their immersion into it: How did it feel to write

Perhaps the most

important quality of the

Unfamiliar-Genre

Research Project is that it

asks students to use their

research by experimenting

with and drafting in the

genre they have studied.


in a genre that is uncomfortable or unfamiliar? Howdo you think your future students might feel if yousimply assigned a genre without giving a lot of back-ground—a sonnet, for example, or any other genre

that might seem uncomfortableor scary to them? What strate-gies did you use to feel morecomfortable with that genre?How could you adapt thosestrategies to help students feelready to take on that genre?

After Cathy shared thebasics of this project with me, Idecided to adapt it for use withmy students; it seemed like theperfect project to precede amultigenre research unit. Sincethen, this project has evolved asthe two of us have workedtogether, talking about the

project and its value to two different groups of stu-dents, visiting each other’s classes to see how thisproject actually plays out for our two different audi-ences, and continually revising the project for eachgroup. While the purposes of the project differ some-what in each setting, what we find intriguing is this:Both college students and high school students bene-fit from this kind of immersion in genre as theybecome the central inquirers into how genre works.Research takes on new meaning—both groups learnthat various genres have particular constructs andthat understanding those constructs can help themgain the confidence they need to figure out the intri-cacies of any genre. An added benefit—we hope—isthat by sharing my forays into the Unfamiliar-GenreResearch Project with the preservice teachers, Cathy’sstudents begin to acknowledge that alternatives tothe traditional research paper are indeed possible in areal classroom; they see how they might adapt theirexperience in Cathy’s class to their future classes.

Overview of the High School Experience

Over six weeks, the high school students will spendabout half of their class time and much of their home-work time working on the project. Class periods aredevoted to library visits, lessons, and workshops. Theteacher-led lessons involve introducing expectations,presenting sample projects that we’ll analyze for

strengths and weaknesses, demonstrating how tokeep a research journal, practicing how to identifygenre conventions through reading examples, role-playing conferencing strategies, writing annotations,and formatting a bibliography using MLA style. Atleast one day a week is devoted exclusively to work-shopping this project. Conferencing is emphasizedthroughout: Every student is required to conferenceideas, drafts, and experiments with classmates as wellas a parent or guardian and, of course, the teacher.

Students present their projects in a researchbinder (see fig. 1). The binders include separate sec-tions for (1) the best draft of original writing in thestudied genre with a reflection on how the piecedemonstrates the student’s research as well as whatthe student learned in the roles of reader, writer, andresearcher; (2) all experimental writing, drafts, andconference notes; (3) a bibliography of five to tensamples that the student read in his or her chosengenre with an annotation explaining the analysis ofthe conventions, style, structure, traits, strategies,and so forth as well as the quality of the piece; and(4) the student’s research (metacognition) journal.

The rubric I use for this project is broad; itincludes ten categories worth 10 percent each. Just asstudents analyze their chosen samples for craft andevaluate their quality, the first two categories ask thesame of the students’ final drafts of the genres theyhave chosen. A third category credits students fortheir self-evaluation. They receive 20 percent of theirgrade for their process and are given credit for theexperiments, drafts, and conference notes. Studentscompile their observations from the research processin an annotated bibliography, which is weightedheavily with another 20 percent. I expect that thefinal drafts of their genre, reflection, and annotatedbibliography are polished and proofread, whichaccounts for another 10 percent. (This rubric is on EJon the Web. The URL is at the end of this article.)

The Research Journal

Metacognition is one of the first terms students learnin my classes. I cannot stress enough how impor-tant it is to be conscious of and evaluate the internaldialogue we engage in as we think, read, write, andlearn. In this project, I am specifically interested inhelping students internalize what all teachersknow: each person’s process is a little different but

40 March 2006


The research journal’s

content should document

each student’s attempts,

false starts, experiments,

and approaches while

evaluating how each

method worked and how

it felt. I want students to

reflect on frustrations as

well as successes so that

they might begin to

determine what their

processes look like.


41English Journal


includes common strategies and skills. As I see it,my job is to introduce useful skills and strategies;the students’ job is to try them out and find aprocess that works.

I want students to understand that they havethe power to learn about that which is unfamiliarand that they can employ this power with or with-out a graded assignment. As with all worthwhileventures, a core intention of this project is to nudgestudents toward lifelong learning.

I require the research journal to help studentsmake this subtle venture more pronounced (see fig. 1).The research journal’s content should document eachstudent’s attempts, false starts, experiments, andapproaches while evaluating how each method workedand how it felt. I want students to reflect on frustra-tions as well as successes so that they might begin todetermine what their processes look like. I also wantstudents to internalize the common wisdom that theprocess, far more than the result, is key to learning.

Researching Lessons

Most of the direct instruction associated with thisproject is focused on demonstrating for the stu-dents how to evaluate writing samples and thenhow to compile those observations into an anno-tated bibliography.

My first lesson in this series, a handout with ashort, fake news story I wrote, awaits students asthey take their seats. We talk about defining char-acteristics—what makes a news story different fromany other genre? As a class, we brainstorm a fewobvious and more subtle characteristics as I markthem on an overhead transparency of the handout:columnar layout, short (often one-sentence) para-graphs, paragraph-long standalone quotes.

When it is clear that students are picking upthe idea of defining characteristics, we divide intosmall, heterogeneous groups and continue the job.When it seems that groups are beginning to losefocus, I ask them to look for two additional character-istics and distribute my second handout, a copy of theoriginal with the addition of thirty-six observationsspecific to news stories. (These two handouts are onEJ on the Web.) As no group has come up with morethan half of these, they are amazed and impressedwith what one can find when one looks carefully at atext—and this is a simple, two-hundred-word piece!

Of course, as students are quick to point out,I am experienced and comfortable with newswrit-ing; this is supposed to be an unfamiliar genre. Ofcourse. The point of the lesson is that through thecourse of our research, we must read in our selectedgenres to become familiar with the conventions, struc-tures, layout, style, voice, strategies, and otherdefining characteristics used to craft them.Through their analysis of multiple samples, stu-dents begin to observe that while each genre looksand reads in a recognizable way, professional writersdo not follow strict formulas.

I expect students to per-form a variation of this lessonon each of the samples theyselect for their annotated bib-liography and then to usethese observations to writeeach annotation. In future lessons, we will analyzethe genre of annotations and will collectively writean annotation for the news story from the handout.

The Workshop Approach

Additional class time is spent teaching and reteach-ing workshop essentials, especially role-playing writ-ing conferences, much like Nancie Atwell describesin In the Middle: New Understandings about Writing,Reading, and Learning. I require students to conferencewith at least one classmate, a parent or guardian, andme. During writing conferences, I expect students toread their drafts aloud and take notes; I make it clearthat simply trading papers and never actually talkingto conference partners is unacceptable. Talkingthrough writing choices and intentions is an impor-tant part of a writer’s research process.

A note on conferencing: Students value one-on-one time with teachers as much as we do withthem. Further, class sizes of twenty-five to thirty ormore are a reality of public schools. As such, thequick check-in Atwell recommends during everywriting workshop doesn’t happen in my classroom.Even by spreading conferences over several periods,and because many students request a conferencewith me closer to the project due date, I find itimpossible to conference with every student duringin-class workshop time. Because I believe that stu-dents genuinely appreciate the time, I offer writingconferences before school, during lunch, and after

Students are apprentices

experimenting with the

tools they observe the

experts using in their

sample pieces.


school in addition to in-class workshop time. Alter-natively, additional workshop days might be addedto the schedule to accommodate conferencerequests in the two weeks before the project is due.

Although I treasure the times when wedevote our entire week to reading and writingworkshop as Atwell does, the once-a-week work-shops I offer during this unit provide a similarvalue at the core of this research project. Studentsare apprentices experimenting with the tools theyobserve the experts using in their sample pieces.This brings up an important point some studentsmiss without my explicit reminders: their five toten samples cannot simply be the first samples theyfind in their chosen genre but the best they find.Culling is an important research skill studentslearn in this project.

Lessons Learned

Students repeatedly impress me with the breadthand depth of the work they voluntarily undertakein this project. Students choose genres as varied asmicrofiction, scrapbooking, sonnet, and novel assome of their unfamiliar genres. And it doesn’t endthere. Students report that within the six shortweeks of the project, they are amazed by the dra-matic changes they see in their learning.

“This project helped me a lot more than Iexpected it to,” Leo, who studied cookbooks, wrotein his reflection. “I thought this was just going tobe like any other project, but it was different frommost of the ones that I have done before. . . . Theproject has opened my eyes to new forms of writingand has shown me how the format and aspects ofwriting make the piece. . . . As a reader, I will nowpay more attention to different formats and styles ofwriting so I can incorporate them into my own. . . .I found myself just today reading my dad’s newspa-per and paying attention to the special way it waswritten.”

What’s more, students internalize their new-found skills and feel empowered to put them to work.

“My writing benefited from having to paysuch close attention to detail. . . . This was a changefor me because I am used to writing where detailand specifics are not so important. It helped medevelop some discipline. . . . I will never read abook or any other piece of written material quitethe same again,” reflected Susan, who investigatedhow-to books. “This project taught me to look forthe specific qualities that make each genre unique. Inow read as if I am on a treasure hunt, and I amsearching for clues. . . . I have a brand new perspec-tive on reading, one that I probably would not havelearned without having done this project.”

The students have convinced me that this proj-ect is a worthwhile and welcome addition to theirways of learning. They learn some traditional researchskills—how to use the library, how to use the Inter-net, and how to critically assess and annotate theirfindings—and have the added benefit of applyingthose skills in an immediate and tangible fashion.The long-range benefits are important as well: As stu-dents learn more about the concept of genre, they aremore-informed readers and writers, understanding ina real way that various genres have various demandsand using that awareness to approach the new as wellas the familiar genres they encounter. Further,researching their genre helps students gain confi-dence that they can take on new writing tasks—atangible end to the sometimes elusive research unit.

Works Cited

Atwell, Nancie. In the Middle: New Understandings aboutWriting, Reading, and Learning. 2nd ed. Portsmouth:Boynton/Cook, 1998.

Bloom, Benjamin S., Bertram B. Masia, and David R.Krathwohl. Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. 2 vols.New York: McKay, 1964.

Macrorie, Ken. The I-Search Paper. Rev. ed. Searching Writ-ing. Portsmouth: Boynton/Cook, 1988.

Romano, Tom. Blending Genre, Altering Style: Writing Multi-genre Papers. Portsmouth: Boynton/Cook, 2000.

42 March 2006


Sarah Andrew-Vaughan is an eighth-year English teacher at Ann Arbor Huron High School and a teacher consultant with theEastern Michigan Writing Project. email: [email protected]. Cathy Fleischer is professor of English education at East-ern Michigan University, where she teaches courses in writing and literacy for preservice and practicing teachers and co-directsthe Eastern Michigan Writing Project. She is the author of numerous books and articles about teacher research and communityoutreach. email: [email protected].

The rubric, news story, and news story with observations are all available as EJ Extensions on EJ on the Web. Visithttp://www.englishjournal.colostate.edu/Extensions/extensionsmain.htm.


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