Form categorizes texts based on their structure , serving as a kind of mold into which the content fits. Poetry has perhaps the widest array of distinctly recognized forms , from the open free-verse at one extreme to the highly-structured forms of pantoum and sestina to name only two , which take into account such structural elements as rhyme scheme, rhythm, length, repetition, and sometimes even blending here somewhat with genre the expected content of a particular form.
Within fiction, dictates of form are based primarily on length. The length dictates of the forms of flash fiction, short story, and novel create other differences based on what can fit into the space allowed.
Form matters in writing. Various poetic forms carry an internal meaning within the form itself. Form can cue reader expectations about content and style. Form plays a role in publication, that while some publications accept texts that challenge traditional forms, most still seek texts identifiable in terms of form or genre. Experimenting beyond the form can teach us more about what is possible. Mode, genre, and form give us three ways to think about our writing more deeply, to situate it within the broader range of writing that exists, and to think too about the subtleties of these systems of classification, where they can be helpful, harmful, followed, or subverted.
Some of us might work consciously within a single mode, genre, and form; other times we may branch out—one piece here, another there.
What is your relationship to mode, genre, and form? What other ways of distinguishing among texts do you find useful? Does much of your writing fit within a particular niche of mode, genre, and form? Where are you experimenting? You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account.
You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Email Address:. Create a website or blog at WordPress. Out for a hike earlier this week, looking out over the fjord.
These foxgloves are appearing everywhere these days. They must be my favorite Norwegian wildflower, rich magenta, tubular, a whole bouquet in one undulating stalk. My husband and I like to imagine a fox coming by and trying on some of these gloves. Like this: Like Loading Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fitzpatrick, K.
Culture Machine, 12, 1— Kress, G. Multimodal Discourse. The modes and media of contemporary communication. London: Arnold. Manovich, Lev. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Lauer, C. Computers and Composition, 26 4 , — The New London Group. A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies. Harvard Educational Review, 66 1 , 60— The next one begins Monday, July 15th. Sign up here for reminders. This is completely free but so valuable as it nurtures your writing life while building relationships with teachers from across the country.
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. This is so important—does the idea drive the writing or does the mode drive the writing? So often, teachers are required to teach a mode each unit. I love the idea of reversing it and letting the kiddos choose the mode they want to use to get their point across. This is a great article that brings up excellent points. Now, how do we move forward?
What do we do next to get our standardize tests? Thanks for responding, Kelli. I wrote this to help me sort through all the language — language I was using with students and teachers. I think shifting how we talk about writing and design assignments is a big first step. Or maybe the first step for districts is to recognize that in almost every instance their writing program has only one audience — the teacher, which symbolizes the state and is why so many students resist it.
Students are subversive— love them for that. The writer who refuses to pick up a pen or types an all CAPS reading response in the empty text box on a test is being subversive. One writing program is literally boxes and boxes of daily lesson plans — as if a scripted curriculum is the answer. I think it is the opposite. No more textbooks or programs. If a teacher is a writer, all they have to do is teach what a real writer thinks and does. Maybe all teachers should experience NWP?
It is invigorating and builds confidence in teachers to do the real work with their writers. It is also on the shorter side, which helps. And although I found the emphasis on specific modes—perhaps paradoxically—liberating during my undergrad years, I also struggled with the idea that exposition takes myriad sub-forms, and narration can inform argument, persuasion, and exposition.
We want students to have all the tools in our rhetorical toolbox available to them, but in throwing in so many options, we should think about what that means for logical thinking and for more traditional ways of writing. Still, I know my own creativity has not developed as much as it might have because of my expectations for my own writing and my own focus on standard modes and usage. I hope that give this a read, as I truly believe it to be important.
Sarah, this article is marvelously insightful and important for teachers of writing. Situation and context of the piece, the audience, the writer, the moment, the longterm and short term intent all matter. I could jabber with you for a long time on this important topic.
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Search within In This Article Works Cited. Go to page:. Abstract and Keywords This chapter aims to survey one of the most influential transformations in critical approaches to science fiction since the mids. All rights reserved. Sign in to annotate. Delete Cancel Save. Cancel Save.
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