Brianna Joyce

English 1101-041
Mrs. Thomas
November 11, 2014
Overall, I think my paper conveys my message well. I think it flows smoothly
with each paragraph telling and explaining a new characteristic. I would like to
know what my readers think about my examples and explanation of each
Swales characteristic given. The only question that remains for me is, what
would make my paper stronger? I am always open to suggestion that help
better my work.
Doctors Office Discourse
The doors swing open and you walk into a bland monotone open room.
You walk to the front desk, check in with the receptionist, and sign your name
to the clipboard. Next, you are asked to take a seat in the waiting room until
you are called into the back with a nurse. Once called into the back part of the
doctors office, your vital signs, blood pressure, weight, and height, are all
charted and filed. Next you proceed to a patient room, filled with
stethoscopes, microscopes, and a patient table. The nurse may then ask your
medical history, medication list, or why for your visit. Finally, the doctor comes
into the room, addresses all issues and based on their findings either sends
an electronic prescription of medicine for the issue or gives advice on what to
do at home. This is your patients typical visit at the doctors office.
In order to examine a doctors office as a discourse community, I had
to do several observation periods. My very first observation of the day was
that the doctors office was a very busy and popular place. The doctors office
serves for many different reasons. Whether a person is sick and needs care,
injured and needs treatment, for a check-up visit, or a physical for a sport or
job. For example, one patient came in and tested positive for strep throat and

needed the appropriate medications to get well, while another patient came in
on workers comp injured with a broken hand and needed a cast.
The doctors office I am referring to is Western Rockingham Family
Medicine (WRFM) in Madison, North Carolina. WRFM currently has seven
active doctors and ten active nurses, along with many other staff that does
various jobs to keep the office running efficiently. Like a lab technician, x-ray
technician, and a receptionist, to name a few.
According to educator and researcher John Swales, in order to qualify
as a discourse community the group must meet six characteristics. These six
characteristics include: common goals, intercommunication, participatory
mechanisms, one or more genres, lexis, and a good proportion of old-timers
verses newbies. My goal is to prove that Western Rockingham Family
Medicine is a discourse community that functions efficiently.
On my visits to Western Rockingham Family Medicine, through my
interview I conducted, and my observations I saw; the common goal was
apparent. I interviewed nurse of WRFM for 18 years, Traci Joyce. When
asking Traci what the common goal of the staff of the doctors office was, she
quickly replied To provide good healthcare to the community and to care for
the patient efficiently. This goal became clear to me as I observed the
practice and saw how much care was put into each patients visit. Also on one
of my visits as I sat in the waiting room studying each individuals actions, I
came across WRFMs pamphlet. On the very inside of the front page it reads,
Our Mission is providing our community with the best medical care. We strive
to improve health and quality of life. We welcome new patients!
Intercommunication is the next characteristic on Swales list of
discourse community qualifications. Communication is one of the most
important things inside of any doctors office, not just Western Rockingham
Family Medicine. Doctors, nurses, technicians, receptionist, therapist and
head health care officials use many different forms of communicating in this
environment. The most popular and quickest is email. Every employee is
assigned their own special email and expected to check it daily. When
interviewing nurse Traci, I asked what the employee email might be used for.
She responded, Our email is the most important communication tool we use.

It delivers us with the schedule of work for months to come and also gives us
recent updates of new information, since the healthcare field is constantly
changing. Other communication devices used around the WRFM doctors
office include pagers, text messaging, white board for short messages, and an
overhead paging system.
The next characteristic on Swales list is participatory mechanisms.
Western Rockingham Family Medicines participatory mechanisms include
many different things. First, the weekly staff meetings that are held in the
conference room. The leaders of the office, Dr. Moore and Manager Heidi
Schofield call all of the employees to the meeting to discuss policy changes,
new updates, job performances, any problems, and overall to make sure
running efficiently. These meetings also normally consist of a luncheon,
considering they are usually right before lunch break. This is also another
opportunity for employees and staff to interact with each other. Another
participatory mechanism WRFM has is conference calls. This is where a
doctor, several nurses, usually a manager, and maybe a receptionist might sit
in for note taking or call another doctors office via Skype. This serves the
purpose of several employees being able to listen in and watch as one talks
or teaches, as for a training class nurses may go through for example.
Swales next characteristic on his list of qualifications is to have one or
more genres. Western Rockingham Family Medicine has many genres.
WRFM has a Facebook page where patients and other people can leave
comments, photos, or interact with others. Also WRFM has their own website,
which is linked to Cone Health since they are co-owned by this partnership.
Another form of genre in communication around the office is a face-to-face
meeting and technology based interaction. Like emails, text, and pagers. The
last form of genre that also plays a role into the next characteristic and a huge
role in the doctors office is the medical abbreviations; used to quickly get the
job done efficiently.
As mentioned above, the next characteristic is widely used. This is
lexis, or jargon of the medical field. The doctors office has many special
words and abbreviations they use that are world know by all medical staff. For
example SOB means short of breath and PRN means take as needed when
referring to medication. Other words like laceration would be used, when

normally other people would just say a cut. All of these words and
abbreviations have special meaning or sometimes instructions (like IM for
intramuscular when giving a shot) that help nurses and doctors know what is
going on or what to do quickly so they can act fast to help care for a patient.
The lexis of medical employee typically is learned through several years of
medical schooling and training. Also all abbreviations or words are the same
for all medical practice in the US, so there will not be confusion in a time of
emergency.
Finally the last characteristic of Swales discourse community theory is
a good proportion of old timers verses newbies. This idea is seen widely
throughout the doctors office. The old timers would be Doctor Moore (founder
of WRFM, doctor of 35+ years) and Doctor Mary Martin (doctor of 15+ years
at WRFM.) Many of the new doctors that consist of Doctor Holloburton and
Doctor Newton look at the older doctors for guidance and support when first
joining the community. Also, this characteristic is seen when the older nurses
that have been working there a long time train the recently new employed of
WRFM. They help show them the routines, schedules, and policies of the
doctors office.
As you can see, Western Rockingham Family Medicine certainly
qualifies as a discourse community as it meets all of Swales characteristics;
common goals, intercommunication, participatory mechanisms, one or more
genres, lexis, and old-times verses newbies. Not only does WRFM exceed at
their common goal of providing their community and patients with the best
health care, but also they function efficiently as a discourse community while
doing it. Without doctors office like Western Rockingham Family Medicine,
the health of people would suffer.

Works Cited
Joyce, Traci. "Western Rockingham Family Medicine."
Personal interview. 7 Nov. 2014.
Swales, John. The Concept of Discourse Community. Genre
Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings.
Boston: Cambridge UP, 1990. 21-32. Print
Western Rockingham Family Medicine Pamphlet. Madison:
WRFM, n.d. Print.