Nayana Dubier Professor Wolcott September 16, 2013

FINAL

Genre Analysis From a young age students were taught that genre was a way to classify different texts. For example, a fabricated story would be classified as a fiction. However, John Swales, Amy Devitt, Anis Bawarshi, and Mary Jo Reiff have taken the term genre and have reconstructed the concept. According to John Swales (1990), genre is an essential requirement for a discourse community in which he defines genre as, shared and specialized terminology realized through the development of community-specific abbreviations and acronyms (26). However, Amy Devitt (1993) takes the definition of genre and defines it as, a dynamic response to and construction of recurring situation, one that changes historically and in different social groups that adapts and grows as the social context changes (580). In Amy Devitts case, she focuses more on the genre aspect and how a genre can tell a person a lot about a discourse community. Devitt, Bawarshi, Reiff use textual examples like jury instructions, and medical inpatient forms as a way to analysis those specific discourse communities. Based on Amy Devitts definition of genre, I feel that a person can use a genre, like a form, as a tool to help understand how a particular discourse community works. So I have compiled three different OB prenatal Flow records to use as a way to learn and understand how an OB-GYN discourse community might function. I chose this particular field of Obstetrician and Gynecology because currently I am working on completing my degree in Biology, which I will use to aid me in attending medical

school to become an OB-GYN. Since I only know the basics of this particular discourse community, I decided to research exactly what types of documents an OB-GYN would routinely come in contact with in their everyday profession. I found three similar documents, Appendixes A-C, in which an OB-GYN doctor may fill out during or after meeting with their patient. The first Appendix, A, is of a medical chart that an OB-GYN doctor might use to assess their patient. This was the hardest document to find access to online since many medical professions have gone digital leaving them no reason to keep paper records anymore. When I first looked at Appendix A, I took note of how the sample was formatted, which was in a way that the doctor would check the boxes that could apply to their patient. For example, if the patient had asthma, the doctor would then locate asthma on their sheet and put a check in that box next to the word asthma. This method allows the doctors to become more efficient, as that they can quickly go through the list and just check the boxes that apply. When I was looking over the different boxes, there was about thirty percent of terms I have never heard of before and out of the seventy percent of the ones I did recognize there were about twenty percent that I did not really know that much information about. As a nonmember of this community, it was harder for me to understand the different terminology, which shows that Appendix A is meant for a person who either is a part of this particular discourse community or a person who has a more medical background. Also, looking at Appendix A, I noticed how above each section there is a bolded, bigger font, two word title which gives the person a brief description of what the section entails. For example, under medical risks there are boxes like preterm labor, diabetes Melliutus, and Placenta Previa; which all fall under medical risks. This would allow a doctor to quickly locate a specific item on the form. For example, lets say in a dire situation the doctor needed to know if the patient had an eating disorder, so right away he would look under nutritional risks compared

to having to go down the long list if the sections were not organized. At the bottom of Appendix A, there is a section where it says, Form Completed by in which a doctor would sign; this would establish who the authority was in this document. In the same column there is a section that says Risk Level and here the doctor would look at all the boxes checked and would make the decision whether or not the patient had a high or low risk level. If I was told to determine the risk level, I would maybe declare a person with a lot of checked boxes as high risked compared to a person with one or two boxes checked. However, an OB-GYN doctor might look at the document and see one or two checked boxes that are very serious and harmful to the patients health and declare the patient has a high risk level. This goes back to the concept of not knowing the terminology enough to be able to properly assess a patient, since I am a nonmember of this discourse community. Compared to Appendix A, Appendix B and C were easier to find online since most doctors have transitioned into using an electronic filing method. This transition would be consistent with Amy Devitts definition of genre since she states that genre adapts and grows as the social context changes (580). By converting to a more digital format, it has allowed doctors to become even more efficient. If a doctor wanted to look up a certain patients record they can now easily just type in the patients name on the computer and all their records will show up compared to having to go to the filing cabinet and manually look for the patients file. This also allows doctors to remove the error of illegible handwriting. As in Appendix B and C, the doctor filling out the form has room to type notes and basic information like name, height, etc. quicker. Since doctors are usually busy, they may sometimes rush and just scribble down on the form and if another person wants to read the form, they would be unable to read what the doctor wrote. Or in some cases, they may misinterpret what the doctor wrote which could harm the patients well -

being. At the top of Appendix B, it states who the patients doctor is, which automatically establishes who has the authority. Compared to Appendix C, where the doctor is listed on the left hand side of the paper in brackets, [stork]. However, even though this particular discourse communitys genre has developed over time, it still has the same language barrier as the paper chart. Looking at both Appendix B and C, I would not know how to properly fill out this information since I am unfamiliar with the different terminology such: Fd, Ket, FHR, and Gest. Based off this information, it was clear to see that mostly doctors or nurses in this field would interact with this genre and be able to comprehend exactly what the abbreviations meant. In comparison to Appendix A, both Appendix B and C are both organized in a way that allows the doctor to act efficiently. By analyzing these three textual genres it is clear to see that the main components of this discourse community are efficiency and organization. Efficiency allows the doctors to quickly assess each patient to the best of their knowledge while organization helps this community keep everything in order. For example, if this discourse community did not have these organized efficient forms then doctors would most likely misdiagnose a patient which could be very detrimental to their health. These three textual genres held true to Amy Devitts definition of genre since the forms were a part of a reoccurring situation in which the doctors analyze their patients and record it on the same form with different information. Also, it was evident that even though the form style changed to digital, the same language restriction stayed, separating members from nonmembers. In all, these particular textual genre forms allow the OB-GYN discourse community to prosper.

Work Cited Devitt, Amy. Generalizing about Genre:New Conceptions of an Old Concept. 44. National Council of Teachers of English, 1993. 573-586. Print. Devitt, Amy J., Anis Bawarshi, and Mary Jo Reiff.Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities . 65. National Council of Teachers of English, 2003. 541-558. Print. Swales, John. The Concept of Discourse Community. 1990. 21-32. Print.

Appendix A ( Form A)

Appendix B (Form B)

Appendix C (Form C)