This Multigenre Research Project is a major part of a computer and information literacy course in the Communication Disorders department of Marshall University. This project was intended to show many different aspects of one particular issue through the voices of other key players who may be involved in certain scenarios. It was designed to be an alternative to a traditional research paper.

The main topic of my project is deaf literacy. My specific question was, "How do deaf children who have never heard before learn how to read, spell and write?" A few years ago, in a sign language class, I wondered about this question and asked some of my professors. No one could come up with a concrete answer and most had never thought about the issue in depth. This curiosity followed me and so it was not difficult to decide what I wanted to know more about.

In choosing the types of genres, I didn't really pick any certain ones for any reasons. I honestly chose ones from the list of options and started with the easiest ones to write! It wasn't until after I came up with the idea of my unifying genre that I changed a few things to make it fit with the flow of the email exchange. With that genre, I decided to come up with as many different ways to lead the parent into possible sources of information as possible without being too unrealistic. Essentially, I started from the top down and constructed as many genres as I could and then worked in the foundation around them to make it all work together.

I hope that you enjoy reading through this work, but as you do, remember it is just that; work. This piece was not intended to lead anyone to hard and fast answers about deaf literacy, but to use my own ideas along with other pieces of information to come up with a creative project.