Like many of the students Romano describes in his book, I was initially resistant to writing in genres such as poetry, short story and 10-minute plays. I felt that way mostly because I'd never actually tried writing them, though I'd read many of them all. So I think I can identify with these resistant writers and the students in my classes who may not feel like writing dialogue is a skill they possess. I can honestly say to them that they might just be surprised by their own abilities.
Immediately, then, it was easy to resist the idea of the multigenre paper. Why do it? I wondered. We choose a genre for a specific purpose, a specific audience. Why blend them? Yet within a seemingly illogical framework is the logic that if you wanted to reach a given audience on varied levels you could tailor your style between a number of collected pieces. Romano illustrates this well with his William Basie example. The concept makes sense, and I like the challenge it presents writers.
