I created a brochure about prosthetics for my Inquiry project.

I created this as a

platform to educate my intended audience on the different options they have as far as

prosthetics. I focused mainly on arm and upper body prosthetics in my brochure. My

intended audience is someone who has just gone through an amputation and is looking

for the option that works best for them, or someone who wants to find a different option

than one they have already tried. The audience could even be a family member or friend

of someone who is going through the process and is helping them find out their options.

A brochure is a very common way in the medical field to give out information. It is a

simple and easy way to take information home as a reference, and I wanted to create a

genre that would fit in with the information I was trying to get across. Doctors give

brochures out when patients want to take information home with them in order to make a

decision about treatment. The brochure I created is intended for a doctors office setting.

Either for reading material to get an idea of the options while waiting for the doctor, or a

recap of information the doctor can give the patient after a visit.

I was able to create this genre based off of a lot of the research I did for the

Inquiry Path. When creating this path, I looked at a lot of different angles and

conversations about prosthetics, but the angle that interested me most was about the

actual options that were out there and the science behind them. As someone who wants to

go into the medical field, knowing what options amputees have is both interesting and

helpful information.

One thing I did differently though in my genre piece is I focused on both the products

that have been around awhile and the newly developed ones, and gave pros and cons of

each. When I created the path, I used the older models, such as the passive and body
controlled, as an argument for why the newer models, the myoelectric and thought

controlled, were better. After doing further research, I was able to see the advantages and

disadvantages of all of them and therefore lay out both sides. I thought this was important

to the genre that I chose. I wanted to create a brochure that was not necessarily selling a

product, but was laying out all the facts for someone who is making a decision that could

affect how they live their life for many years. I believe it is important to know all the

facts when making a medical decision, like choosing a prosthetic. I think a lot of times

doctors and other people that work in the medical field do not always lay out all of the

facts, many times because they are trying to sell a product. To avoid this problem, I went

to multiple sites to find the pros and cons for each product. Some products required two

separate sources to find both pros and cons. I tried to include as much useful information

as I could while still keeping it short so that it would be easy to read, but would also still

fit on the brochure with a picture. In order to do this, I gave a short description on how

each one works, and then gave a price and compared it to one of the other options.

I created the brochure using a trifold template. It is double sided; therefore it

consists of six different columns. I used the front column to introduce the topic. This

column is the only one that can be seen initially, so I included a question to grab the

audiences attention. I also included some pictures of different prosthetics to show what

would be presented on the inside. As you open the brochure, there are four different

columns, each laying out a different option. Each option includes a visual to show what

this product looks like. I believe the picture is important so that people have a visual for

what exactly they are choosing. Under each picture, I included a brief description of each

product. I tried to incorporate advantages and disadvantages, as well as process and price.
I tried to give some details while keeping the formatting as simple as possible. The four

different options included in the brochure are passive, body controlled, myoelectic, and

thought controlled prosthetics. I placed the two older and cheaper models next to each

other and the newer, more expensive models next to each other. The thought controlled

prosthetics column was done a little differently, because it has a slightly different

intended audience. This prosthetic is mostly for paralysis patients rather than amputees,

but I thought it was an important development in the prosthetic world and would be good

information for someone wanting to be in a trial run. The backside of the brochure

included sources and links of all the places I got my research for the brochure. I included

this in order to give my audience suggestions for further research. My descriptions were

far from exhaustive, but intended just to give them an idea of the different options. The

websites listed will provide more information about the specific prosthetic the patient is

most interested in.

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