My name is Jennifer Hatfield. I am a 21 year old student at Marshall University. Marshall University, home of the Thundering Herd, is located in Huntington, West Virginia. I am a senior Communication Disorders student. This spring (2003) I will be applying for graduate school. Hopefully, I will be attending Marshall as a graduate student.

Special thanks goes out to all my classmates, especially my group, and Mrs. McComas. Everyone was so helpful. Anytime I had questions, Mrs. McComas and my peers answered them promptly and to the best of their ability. The feedback I received about my project was also greatly appreciated. Thanks again, girls & guy!

This Multigenre Research Project (MRP) was developed as an assignment for a class, Communication Disorders (CD) 315, at Marshall University. A MRP is an alternative to a research paper in which different perspectatives are sought on a particular issue. All of the characters that I have developed are fictious, based on factual information and my own thoughts.

My research question,"How do people perceive the speech produced by an artificial larynx?", was selected because artificial larynges and laryngectomies are two areas of speech pathology that are unfamiliar to me. In the classes that I have had as a CD major, the subject of a laryngectomy has only been touched on briefly. I chose this area to research because it was very new to me.

After I decided on an essential question to research, I developed an outline of my MRP. I decided to use an interview to piece my project together. The interview is based upon a special edition news show. I thought that this would be a great piece to link everything together because so many different areas can be covered in an interview, along with different perspectives.

I chose my genres after a great deal of thought. The webliography, powerpoint presentation, and poem were all required genres. The other genres I used were an interview (which I mentioned before), a referral letter from an otolaryngologist, and two journal entries written by the client. Each piece was selected through a careful decision making process. I had to decide which voices would be the most effective for each genre. I used five voices in my project, while only three were required. The voices I chose were the client, clinician, a doctor, a new friend of the client, and a news reporter. The voices that I picked dictated which genres I selected. I thought that the journal entries were a great way to capture the reaction of a client who has just found out she has laryngeal cancer, which will require a laryngectomy, and then is faced with trying to find a method of communication that is comfortable for her. I felt that the referral letter was the best way for me to show the medical aspects involved.

I hope you will enjoy my project. As you read, keep in mind, that I am an undergraduate student and that all the characters used in this project are fictional.