Content:
I have never done a Multi-Genre-Project before and I know that I am not alone because no one in my class has done one before. I was not really sure what to expect when I started this project. I did understand that it would be different pieces of writing that would be addressed for different audiences and include different voices. For the MRP project I was to develop an essential question and from this question I needed to develop six genres that had to be written in a least three different voices. These genres are what I used to help answer my essential question. My essential question is: how can SLP’s help children with communication disorders overcome the negative impact that public perception can have on a communication disorder? After the essential question was developed, I developed my foundation questions, which were questions that I thought would help me come up with an answer to my essential question. From my essential question and foundation questions, I then developed my project prospectus. The project prospectus included my essential question, foundation questions, tentative point, genres, and resources that I might use. The project prospectus served as an outline that helped guide me through the development of this project. The MRP project consisted of doing 6 genres. Three of the genres were required, which were a webliography, a poem, and a power point presentation. The other three genres that I chose to do were a journal entry, an interview, and a letter to the editor. The voices that I decided to use for my project were that of a teacher, a clinician, a client, and a parent. I did the webliography in the voice of the clinician to let readers learn more about myself, the field of speech pathology, and my topic. The poem was in the voice of the child and it was to address how children with communication disorders feel about themselves. The power point presentation was in the voice of the clinician and it was directed towards parents and teachers so they could learn how a communication disorder affects more than speech and language. The journal entry was done in the voice of the teacher and it has the teacher's thoughts about communication disorders, how a child is affected by a communication disorder, and what she can do to help the child feel better about themselves. The interview was the voice of the clinician and the teacher. Here, the clinician was suggesting activities that a teacher can use to help a child with a communication disorder feel better about themselves and interact more with others. The letter to the editor was in the voice of the parent expressing how her child with a communication disorder gets treated in school, how it makes her and the child feel, and addressed the fact that the way her child gets treated needs to change.

Process:
As I have said, doing an MRP was a totally new way of doing a research project for both the teacher and us students. I will admit that I was terrified about doing the MRP. Having a habit of doing research papers the exact same way every time, I did not know if I could step it up several notches and break away from the traditional way of research. Using different genres, voices, and audiences really changed the way you needed to research. For a traditional a research paper, you come up with one answer for your question. For the MRP, you use different genres, voices, and audiences to come up with an answer to your question. The MRP is a really different way to do research, but the change in research is a very beneficial change. I think that by doing research this way allows you to explore and learn more about your research topic. The different voices allows one to learn more about how communication disorders affect more than just speech and language of a child. For example, you learn strategies that SLP’s can use and other professional can use to help increase one’s self-esteem, you learn more about how a child and the parent feels about their disorder, you learn what teachers can do to help children with a communication disorder, and how the negative impact from public perception can affect their life. The audiences allow you to learn more about how this question would be answered in real life. For my question, the audiences have been directed towards the public, a teacher, and a Speech Language Pathologist.
Since this was a new idea of doing research, I did have some trouble formulating several ideas. At first I had trouble coming up with an essential question because I was interested in so many things that it made it hard for me to come up with just one question that I wanted to know more about. My main interest was on how a communication disorder can affect a person’s self-image/esteem of that child and what can SLP’s do to help them feel better about themselves. After changing my question several times I finally came up with a solid essential question and after I had I began to feel less overwhelmed and more calm about doing this project. When it came time to decide my genres, I went back and reviewed my essential and foundation questions. I looked at the questions that I thought I needed to answer and then I developed my genres, based on what I thought would best answer my question. To help me come up with my genres, I referred back to my essential and foundation questions and came up with genres that I thought would answer my essential question. Other than the required genres (webliography, poem, and power point), I chose a journal, a letter to the editor, an interview, and a journal entry. Then I looked at my genres and picked the voice that I thought would best represent that genre. For the genres I chose the voices of a clinician, a teacher, a parent, and a child. My webliography genre was in the voice of the clinician and included information about myself (what interests me, what I like, etc.)and my topic and listed sites about the field of speech pathology. I chose this genre to be in the voice of the clinician because I thought that the readers could get an understanding about myself, the field of speech pathology, and my topic. The audience that this genre is intended for is for the public. I did not have too much trouble putting together my webliography, other than having problem linking my sites. I also had trouble finding websites that pertain to my area of research. However, once I used different key words to search for my topic I was able to find a lot more research resources. Another genre I did was an "I am" poem. The poem genre was done in the voice of the child to show how a communication disorder affects that person. Here, I wanted to show how a person with a communication disorder often feels different due to other children's perception of him because of the communication disorder. The audience that this genre is intended for is parents, teachers, and students. Anyone can read this poem, but when they do they will really understand how this child feels compared to other kids who do not have communication disorders. My main goal with the poem was to show that people with communication disorders are normal kids, just like other kids. When I first did the poem, I explained how a person with a communication disorder gets treated, but I did not give any information on how this kid is normal compared to the other kids. I decided to take a suggestion and do this, so I made it an "I am" poem with an internal dialogue. So, I explained how this child with a communication disorder feels, but I also gave information on how this child is normal like his peers.
Another genre that I did was the power point genre. This genre was in the voice of the clinician and gave general information about communication disorders and how they can affect the life of a child. Here, I included what a communication disorder can affect, which is more than just speech and language. In the presentation I included how a communication disorder affects their self-esteem, academic performance, and how it affects themselves. The intended audience for this presentation is teachers and parents. I think that it is important for teachers and parents to know exactly how communication disorders affect the child. I did not have too much trouble doing the presentation. I did go back and make it easier to read and I added more information to the slides.
The interview genre was designed to educate the classroom teacher on what they can do for their students who have low self-esteem as a result of a communication disorder. The interview was in the voice of the clinician and the teacher and was used to talk about what activities a teacher can use to help increase a child’s self-esteem, as well as explain how important a high self-esteem is for a child. The audience would be the teacher and the clinician. I really did not have any problems with the interview. I just had to make a few corrections here and there.
The letter to the editor was in the voice of the parent and was done to address how a parent feels about the way their child gets treated and how it needs to stop. The intended audience for this letter was the public. The letter to the editor genre gave me the most trouble because I have never written a letter to the editor, so I found it hard to do. To write the letter I basically took the information that I know about how a communication disorder causes a child to feel. With this information I looked at it from a parent's perspective and wrote about how i would feel if my child had a communication disorder and what I would think needed to be done to help my child feel better about themself. I first wrote the letter on my blog, but I decided to go back and re-do it in word in the form of columns, so that it would look like a real letter to the editor. I also linked the websites that I used as resources so that when people read my project they could look at the information that the mom has suggested. I also, added the website address because I know that in a real letter there would be no links, so I wanted to add the web address to make it seem like a real letter to the editor.
I also did a journal entry genre and it was in the voice of a teacher, which allows you to understand what they need to know about communication disorders and how they can help a child overcome this negative impact that is often associated with a communication disorder. Children spend most of their day in their classroom and it is a good idea to get the voice of a teacher and write about her thoughts and feelings about having students with communication disorders. I had a little bit of trouble with writing this piece. The hardest part of this journal entry was writing in the voice of the teacher.
The journal entry piece is the writing that I decided to use to tie my whole project together. The way that I organized my MRP is that I started with the journal entry in which the teacher reflects on her day when she first reads the newspaper, comes across a letter to the editor, and realizes that communication disorders affect more than just their speech and language. To try an understand how her student with a communication disorder feels, she has the class do an "I am" poem. This poem causes her to realize that she needs to learn more about how a communication disorder affects a child, which she learns from the power point presentation. Then she has an interview with the speech pathologist to learn more about how she can help the child increase his self-esteem and feel better about himself. The webliography is used as an informational source that the teacher can look at to find more information about communication disorders.

Premise:
I really think using the MRP format to do a research question rather than the traditional way of doing research has allowed me to learn more about my topic. My question is: how can SLP’s help children with communication disorders overcome the negative impact that public perception can have on a communication disorder? Before this class we had not really learned what Speech Language Pathologists can do to help people overcome the negative impact that public perception can have on a disorder. Neither have we learned how people treat other people who have communication disorder. From doing this project I have found an answer to my question. I am answering my question (an answer not the answer) by using 6 different pieces of writing and by using 3 voices. One way that I answer my question is based on how the child perceives himself, which is based on the way his peers treat him. I also answer the question by expressing a parent's view on public perception of a communication disorder and what needs to be done for their children to not be treated negatively by their peers. I am also answering the question by explaining what strategies an SLP can use to help increase the child’s self-esteem due to the negative impact that public perception can have on a communication disorder. In addition, I am answering the question by explaining how working with other professionals (teachers & parents) can help improve the negative impact that public perception can have on a communication disorder. I explain how a communication disorder affects more than just the speech and language of that child. I think that all these points of views need to be looked at and researched in order to answer my question. For example, how can you talk about strategies of how to improve the self-esteem of a child, if you don’t know how that child feels? Even though you can write some of this information in a traditional research paper, this project makes it seem more real because you are actually conveying how other people feel about the same topic.

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