Genre Analysis

RadiologistThe analysis of their genre and function.

Krystal Bowen
Introduction

February 13,2013

As a future member of the disciplinary community of physicians that have formulated their own discourse community equipped with both genre and lexis, this analysis of genre has introduced me to their format of communication and its function. Due to medicine being such a broad field relying heavily on consistent intercommunication with one another, the need for a unified method of sharing research has resulted in the development of various medical journals that apply to all the specialties and sub-specialties of medicine. Scientists and physicians alike both value evidence, either through facts and or repeatability, so as a result the format of the scientific method is heavily seen throughout various articles within medical journals. As I began to explore the discourse community of Radiologist in The New England Journal of Medicine I analyzed various articles that studies the connection between repeated exposure to radiation and its potential link to cancer in patients. Despite the of the different kinds of articles varying from a case study,

perspective analysis, and a current concepts the similarity of format is consistent throughout all such as content and arrangement and citations.
Discussion

With the (recent conceptions of genre as a dynamic and semiotic construct to illustrate how to unify form and content, place text within context, balance process and product.. 1-) is a prime example of how this discourse community communicates with one another. Since this community is a member of a larger discourse community of science they mimic a universally taught format (scientific method) that is embedded within our mind: observe, hypothesize, find purpose, test, analyze and conclude. By doing so it allows for specialist and non-specialist to easily go and uncover the necessary information as needed, or allows me a first year science major student to understand the information. The three articles I obtained from The New England Journal of Medicine were found online through the University of Central Floridas database. However through further examination I uncovered that this journal could be accessed through a simple Google search or Google Scholar. Contradictory to many journals that can only be accessed through payment either done by you or a third party (i.e. school) this is free to anyone who is interested in physicians specialties. Which allows for the community to achieve its goal because despite there being unknown lexis for non-specialist it allows for a discussion to be created within the community which leads to new medical developments and research while aiming to improve patient care. Despite the various presentations of studies they all share identifying factors that created a pattern within the genre. All of the articles have a header that boldly

identifies that it is The New England Journal of Medicine, because it legitimizes the article since it is a respected journal, while at the same time advertising the journal within the community because it will inform members of it reputability through the authors that they have published. In addition to their header they also have footer that there is No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported in order to eliminate potential assumption of bias that could taint the outcome of the research. A prominent trend in the medical community is the date appearing before the title emphasizing the significance of recent data collected;due to the belief that current dates equate to accurately applicable information. After that is the title which is in the center of the page bolded with an explanatory title through the use of a dash () the authors identify the central theme or purpose of the paper then poses a statement discussed throughout the article as a way to accurately label the article. Consistently in this community the articles are written by M.D.s( Doctors of Medicine),D.Sc.s (Doctors of Science)and or Ph.Ds(Doctorate of Philosophy)who either worked on it independlty or with other members of the community. This is a community of physicians that use this genre as an outlet of communication and discussion (on the online version of the journal you are able to write a response to the article in order to the community). Unlike other forms of citation when referencing authors the do so with a superscript next to a word (i.e.1) in order to acknowledge there input to the article, while keeping the readers focus on theirs, and in the citation process only the name of article and year is given because they place a greater emphasis the article than who wrote it. Being very clinical in nature this community values facts such as dates (the inception of the CT in the 1970s),

statistics (75% obtained.), and references to national councils are common. The need for factuality is a must within this community because it accounts for accuracy within the information. That is why in articles words are defined and graphs are explained because they dont want misinterpretations from non-specialist. A claim that was consistent was the word we in reference to all physicians despite this being found in the radiologist section. The we proved that they are aware that other specialties will encounter this article so they explain more things than a specifically based radiology journal would. The division of the article by labels adds to the scientific components of researchers because by presenting all of the information in that format it allows for easy understanding and potential repeatability of the material. Chart or images were common pattern since it allows for physicians to see the overall benefit or loss in a less conceptual manner. Lastly at the end of the article there is a reference list that labeled numerically in columns that gives the articles name and year, so this is a true depiction of what is valued within the discourse community. While a common person would be able to understand the studies some of the medical terminology and acronyms are education specific, for a particular lexis. For example a college student could read the article but if they were not a science student they might not know that DNA double strand breaks are less easily repaired and how that can potentially lead to misrepair which could lead to cancer. These studies were designed in order to show physicians that they can either decrease on the amount of imaging is done on patients, or they need to document it. With this being said the main audience would be family practice physician, pediatricians,

emergency room physicians and radiologist. Only these people can implement the changes needed to decrease overall patient radiation exposure in-patient care. In this community the only people who were in power were those who were aware of the effects, because many physicians never knew of the connection; even radiologist were unaware.

Work Cited
Amy J. Devitt, Anis Bawarshi, Mary Jo Reiff, Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities. College English. National Council of Teachers of English, 2010. 541-558.Print David J. Brenner, Ph.D., D.Sc., and Eric J. Hall, D.Phil., D.Sc. Computed Tomography An Increasing Source of Radiation Exposure.NEJM. 2007; 2277-2284 http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra072149#t=article February 8,2013 Michael S. Lauer, M.D. Elements of Danger The Case of Medical Imaging. NEJM. 2009; 841-843 http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp0904735 February 8,2013 Reza Fazel, M.D., M.Sc., Harlan M. Krumholz, M.D., S.M., Yongfei Wang, M.S., Joseph S. Ross, M.D., Jersey Chen, M.D., M.P.H., Henry H. Ting, M.D., M.B.A., Nilay D. Shah, Ph.D., Khurram Nasir, M.D., M.P.H., Andrew J. Einstein, M.D., Ph.D., and Brahmajee K. Nallamothu, M.D., M.P.H. Exposure to Low-Dose Ionizing Radiation from Medical Imaging Procedures NEJM. 2009; 849-857 http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0901249#t=article. Accessed February 8,2013