title: sometimes returning an object and sometimes returning a serialization of the object
body: <p>I have 2 methods that are very similar.</p>
  
  <pre><code>public string GetMyObjectInJson(parameters)
  {
   MyObject TheObject = new MyObject(); 
   ...lots of work here
   Javascript Serializer = new Javascript Serializer();
   return Serializer.serialize(TheObject); 
  }
  
  public MyObject GetMyObject(parameters)
  {
   MyObject TheObject = new MyObject(); 
   ...lots of work here
   return TheObject; 
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>How should I rewrite this so that I only have one method that can return 2 different types: sometimes a string and sometimes an object.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks.</p>