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Courtney Moore ENC 1102 February 10, 2014 Genre Analysis: Oncology Forms

Amy Devitt, a professor at the university of Kansas, defines genre as a response to recurring rhetorical situations, in other words, a situation where communication between two things occurs. (Devitt, pg #). Devitt also talks about discourse communities in her articles. In laymens terms, discourse community is just a group of people with a common goal through the same use of language. An example of this would be patient intake forms for oncology. The forms that I have as an example are patient forms that the doctor fills out when the patient has been diagnosed with cancer for the start of chemotherapy. When reviewing these different forms depending on the type of cancer detected in the patient, you can conclude that a variety of people may see this particular form. Some of those people include, the initial doctor who diagnosed the patient, the patient, the oncologist who administers the chemotherapy, health care providers, the family of the patient, alternative facilities if the patient transfers, and perhaps scientists/ researchers if the case is required to be studied. These forms are very busy to the eye and filled with a plethora of information that the doctor must fill out so that the patient can begin chemo treatments. When comparing these three forms of diagnosing the patient with either breast cancer, lung cancer, or colon cancer we can first start at the way each form is written. All of the forms are bolded where it starts a new topic and all require some sort of patient history and information that should be completed prior to starting the treatments. The doctor is asked to fill out the type

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of treatment plan each patient should receive depending on what each is diagnosed with. All of the forms for the most part have the same structure within however, the form for lung cancer is the only form that asks what type of symptoms the patient is exhibiting. In my opinion I believe all three forms should ask what type of symptoms each patient is experiencing because I have personal experience with all three types through my own family. With the inside knowledge I do know due to the chemo my grandmother had to receive with the cancers she was diagnosed with, I know all three types of cancers have side effects and symptoms laced within. What I find interesting within all three texts is the presence of a legal release. This release basically states that the doctor and medical staff are not responsible for any type of wrong information initially given when filling out the form. Believe it or not but sometime patients are not entirely truthful when it comes to filling out intake forms about personal or background information. In these cases, doctors may take the necessary steps in medical procedures as needed but something could go wrong with the patient due to the fact that that patient was not completely honest when initially filling out the form. When we dive into the medical field we have the urge to compare medicine versus society. What I mean by this is when looking at the oncology forms; we do not see any place for the doctor to give positive information. Its all hard core information that is usually blunt and to the point, never sugar coated. So why is it when we are in the hospital or under medical care that our loved ones say stay positive yet the doctor offers no such encouragement? When the doctor is taking information down the complete the necessary form, he/she may ask the patient how they feel, expecting to be told symptoms and what is wrong within their body. They arent expecting to hear that youre not feeling well today. Doctors in most cases when filling out oncology forms are usually grim and entirely focused on administering chemotherapy to the

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diagnosed patient. Most doctors do not consider your emotional feeling while filling out the forms and do their best to stay detached from the patient. In closing, we can all see how each form simplifies the communication between the patient, doctor, and radiation oncologist administering the chemotherapy treatments. Doctors use a series of lexis that are different from the terms everyday people who arent associated with the medical field may use. By this, patients may be more worrisome to the terms and languages doctors communicate with because the diagnosis sounds worse than it really may be.

Appendix A- colon cancer form

Appendix B- lung cancer form

Appendix C- breast cancer form