Multigenre

We were asked to write a journal entry about why we chose our particular topics for the multigenre project. I decided to share this journal with my blog followers...all 5 of you. Just for some background info---our multigenre project is a project that is centered around a main topic (mine is transracial adoption). We must reasearch our topic and include 3 different genres of writing about our findings. One of mine happens to be a blog! Check out Journeys Through a Black and White World if you're interested!

Why I Chose Transracial Adoption:
Adoption has always been something thats interested me from day 1. I think that there are some major pros AND cons about it, but I personally love the idea of welcoming an unbiological child into a loving family. During the summer after sophomore year, I participated in a study abroad program to Cape Town, South Africa. Through this program, I was given the opportunity to partake in experiences that will stay with me for a life time. Many of those experiences involved sweet local children that needed a little extra loving. We visited several townships or slums and interacted with the locals. We were even able to spend the night in one of the local townships with volunteer families. This was an extremely terrifying experience but also one that opened my eyes to a type of poverty I had seen in pictures but never actually believed it existed. While in these townships, I met some of the most loving people I've ever come in contact with. Many of these loving people were young children.
Ever since my experience in South Africa, I've had a growing interest in adopting a baby from Africa. I've always wondered how a child would adjust to life in a family of a different race and how the family members would adjust to welcoming a child of a different race. This project provided me with the perfect opportunity to do some research on these ideas and find information from real families that have gone through this adoption process. I plan to look for blogs written by parents or siblings that have first hand experience with transracial adoption. I plan to look up statistics about how interracial families operate. I'm very excited to learn more about this topic because it is something that I am seriously considering doing in my lifetime. But, adoption is not something that should be taken lightly. And I would never want to bring a baby into my family without being fully prepared about the challenges that adoption brings. It wouldn't be fair to the baby, and it wouldn't be fair to the rest of my family. This project will hopefully provide me with a better understanding of what it takes to go through with a transracial adoption...the good and the bad.

Sources used to create blog, instant message conversation, and birth certificates:

Kisses From Katie: http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/

Joining the Journey: http://joiningthejourney.blogspot.com/

Oatsvall Team: http://oatsvallteam.blogspot.com/

Adoptive Families: http://www.adoptivefamilies.com/articles.php?aid=428

Transracial Adoption: The Pros and Cons and the Parents' Perspective: http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:oZRpR5OExcQJ:www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/blj/vol20/morrison.pdf+transracial+adoption&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESh0h8Hma-RFWyRBIUdqB1ykov0t1P78B2J_RWxJ3oiMOTP00Da44G3Lq5rqGnauXIdGRcDttMsY9RwA4z6Ywlck3JpNJRAEm9PatFMIZgOd-6t1RNSPDggX6kyOAaRb_LvFiTqk&sig=AHIEtbTLnbMK1HSyKosU_KfajgsH1bqzMA

Where Do I Belong? by Ola Zuri: Children's literature book about transracial adoptees finding their place in their new families.

Birth Certificate Generator: http://kenyanbirthcertificategenerator.com/

Personal Conversation with adopted teen from my hometown.

Actual quotes from these blogs, books, conversations and articles were used in the making of Journeys Through a Black and White World, the birth certificates, and the instant message conversation.


The Making of my Genres:
1. The birth certificate: I found an online resource that generates fake birth certificates. I thought this would be an neat genre to use because it could show the difference in the birth certificates pre and post adoption. If you look closely, the child, parents', and requesting recipeient's names change.

2. Journeys Through a Black and White World Blog: This was the genre I spent the most time on. I found myself getting very personally involved in the making of this blog. I would catch myself constantly dreaming of different posts I could write. I chose this genre because I thought that it was an honest way to get a peak into the lives and emotions of a family going through with a transracial adoption. I wanted it to come from the mother's perspective because I thought it would be the most honest and raw perspective I could write from. I read through many other similar blogs and even used quotes from actual mothers in my factious blog. I wanted this blog to seem as real as possible. I eventually had to stop myself because the blog was consuming my every thought! This genre was definitely my favorite to write.

3. Instant Message Conversation: I wanted to include some genre that would give a peak into the thoughts and emotions of siblings that are about to welcome a new baby into their lives. I wanted the children to be younger so I could highlight the immature, stereotypical thoughts that children of this age might have. I figured an instant message conversation was a suitable genre because it seemed very realistic. I can clearly remember countless conversations about our family that my brother and I had via instant message.