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Sofia Barragan

Dr. Steffen Guenzel

ENC1101

11/05/2017

First Draft

Understanding the Medical Discourse Community

I am a female college freshman majoring in health science, and I am currently working

to become a physician assistant (PA) someday. My day-to-day duties provide me with thorough

exposure to peculiarities that are unique to the medical profession. From the terms that I speak

to the tools that I use, being a health science student serves as quite an initiation for my eventual

entry to the medical profession, should I push through with this until the end of course. It is for

that reason that I thought of discussing the medical discourse community for this analytical

essay. Being a college freshman, I understand that my knowledge in health science remains

limited and open for expansion as I work on becoming a PA. Nonetheless, the fact that I am a

health science student and that I chose to become one effectively renders my membership within

the medical discourse community official.

Elements of the Medical Discourse Community

Before I proceed with identifying the elements of the medical discourse community based on

both my personal exposure and the existing literature, I would first endeavor to elaborate on

how I understand discourse community as a concept. Swales (469), in endeavoring to elaborate

on the concept of discourse community, noted that it is not yet well-defined, deeming it to be

the center of a set of ideas. Supplementing that notion is Borgs (498) understanding of

Swales (9) definition of discourse community, describing it as a group that possesses goals

or purposes, and use communication to achieve these goals. To that end, it pays to emphasize

on the concomitant notion that membership in a discourse community is not a matter of

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inheritance, but a matter of choice, hence allowing for recruitment by persuasion, training, or

relevant qualification (Swales 471). A discourse community owes its identity to genres,

defined as types of texts that are recognizable to readers or writers, and that meet the needs of

the rhetorical situations in which they function (Doug & Wardle 467). Swales provided his

conceptualization of discourse community through these defining characteristics:

Agreement over a set of common public goals

Possession of intercommunication mechanisms among members

Use of participatory mechanisms for providing information and feedback

Utilization of one or more genres to further aims

Acquisition of a specific lexis

A definite threshold for membership (471-473)

My membership in the medical discourse community, by way of being a health science

student working to become a PA, is bounded by the aforementioned requirements from Swales

(471-473). Said requirements are thoroughly met by the medical discourse community, as

Strand and Thaler emphasized:

Agreement over common public goals of improving the general well-being of

persons

Communication through forums and discussions

Publication of journals and books for knowledge exchange

Interests related to the human body

Constantly-changing medical terminologies

Requirement of prior training (1-2)

Given the foregoing, I would consider my current position to be on the entry-level of

membership in the medical discourse community. Understandably, my graduation and eventual

acquisition of licenses to become a PA or perhaps any other kind of medical professional would
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make my membership within the medical discourse community more official. With that, I see

my current position as one that resembles an initiation phase, within which my success would

rely on my successful accomplishment of my health science studies.

Joining the Medical Discourse Community by Becoming a Physician Assistant (PA)

Physician assistants (PAs) are considered to belong within the mid-level tier of healthcare

practice, alongside nurses and medical assistants (Halter et al. 2). Nonetheless, it is important

to note that becoming a PA requires a distinct set of skills that differentiate them from other

mid-level healthcare practitioners (Drass 163). PAs, as with their other mid-level counterparts,

are among the first points-of-contact by people living in rural areas where there are shortages

of doctors (Halter et al. 2). My functions as a PA, in that regard, would have to intersect with

that of other healthcare professionals (Drass 163).

In my case as an aspiring PA, I would have to undertake physical examinations,

investigations, diagnosis and treatment (Halter et al. 2). That, of course, would depend on

what my supervising doctor would say, which in turn is subject to my choices as I finish my

degree in health science. Such is tantamount to practicing my personal choice to join the

medical discourse community towards becoming a full member by qualifying as a PA. In

becoming a PA, I understand that I will be working mostly with people from rural communities,

supplementing some roles normally attributed to doctors. Subject to the authorization of my

supervising doctor, my functions as a PA, including the provision of diagnosis, treatment, and

prescription, are limited within my scope of practice (Halter et al. 2). In that case, my

membership in the medical discourse community would ultimately be defined by my career

choices as I work on becoming a PA.

Conclusion

Given that I am currently studying health science in college, I aspire to learn more about what

it takes to be fully immersed within the medical discourse community. Given that the medical
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discourse community places high regard to the common goal of ensuring good health for every

person, it is understandable for it to have ways to exchange knowledge, communicate through

forums and discussions, and develop specialized terminologies that accord to health science

innovations. In fact, I take my current position as a health science student as one that would

contribute to the growth of the medical discourse community, what with the number of

possibilities for new discoveries and innovations in the medical profession.

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Works Cited

Borg, Erik. "Discourse Community." ELT Journal, vol. 57, no. 4, 2003 pp. 398-400.

Downs, Doug, and Elizabeth Wardle, editors. Writing About Writing: A College Reader.

Bedford St. Martins, 2011.

Drass, Kriss. "Discourse and Occupational Perspective: A Comparison of Nurse Practitioners

and Physician Assistants." Discourse Processes, vol. 11, no. 2, 1988 pp. 163-181.

Halter, Mary, Drennan, Vari, Chattopadhyay, Kaushik, Carneiro, Wilfred, Yiallouros,

Jenniffer, de Lusignan, Simon, Gage, Heather, Gabe, Jonathan, and Robert Grant. "The

Contribution of Physician Assistants in Primary Care: A Systematic Review." BMC

Health Services Research, vol. 13, no. 223, 2013 pp. 1-13.

Strand, Rachel, and Amanda Thaler. The Analysis of Medical Discourse Community. SD State,

n.d., wiki.sdstate.edu/@api/deki/pages/704/pdf.

Swales, John. "The Concept of Discourse Community" Writing About Writing: A College

Reader, edited by Doug Downs and Elizabeth Wardle, Bedford St. Martins, 2011, pp.

466-479.

Swales, John. Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge

University Press, 1990.