Sofia Barragan
ENC1101
11/05/2017
First Draft
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
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
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
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
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
persons
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
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
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
becoming a PA, I understand that I will be working mostly with people from rural communities,
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
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
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
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.
and Physician Assistants." Discourse Processes, vol. 11, no. 2, 1988 pp. 163-181.
Jenniffer, de Lusignan, Simon, Gage, Heather, Gabe, Jonathan, and Robert Grant. "The
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