Richard Ly

Professor Wolcott

9/18/13

Medical Journals: Analyzing The Genre of A Discourse Community

Journals are used greatly in the medical community and have been published since the

technology for printing was first around. They are used widely throughout the medical

community to share results on a new drug or information explaining a different method to

perform a current procedure. Christopher C. Booth, MD states that they are "a vehicle for the

expression of dissent and for the publication medico-political ideas" (Booth, 398). From having

information on an improved form of performing open-heart surgery to having the procedure to

perform a traditional folklore technique to cure malaria, journals have been key to sharing

information, whether it be throughout the medical community or just to the general public.

This paper is focused on analyzing the medical discourse community throughout a type

of genre of that community: the journals. With one example alone, it isn't possible to accurately

analyze the community since there wouldn't be anything to compare it to. After reviewing

"Early Diagnosis of Myocardial Infarction Using Absolute and Relative Changes in Cardiac

Troponin Concentrations", "Review of Nomenclature in Colonic Surgery- Proposal of a

Standardized Nomenclature Based on Mesocolic Anatomy", and "Outcomes of the Adjustable

Gastric Band In a Publicly Funded Obesity Program", much is brought up about the discourse

community upon comparison between the journals, such as: the style, organization, and

participation of the journals, the rhetorical situations of the emotional stand point, credibility

towards the journal itself, and the evidence used to back up the information given.

Before comparing the genres, it would be necessary to first explain the waythis paper

will view the word "genre". For this, the explanation will come from John Swales' "Genre

Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings". In this, Swales states "a discourse

community has developed and continues to develop discoursal expectations. These may involve

appropriacy of topics, the form, function and positioning of discoursal elements, and the roles

texts play in the operation of the discourse community" (Swales, pg26).

When comparing all three journals, one key point that is easily seen is the organization:

all three articles, regardless of the different topics, have the same structure in organizing the

information. Over time, journals after journals were being published, each contributing to this

basic structure the medical journals now follow. Every part of a journal is important in

describing the discourse community, especially the medical discourse community. With these,

the importance of credibility is shown by the location of the contributing authors; next to the

title, it's the first thing the reader will see. It not only shows the names of the contributing

authors, it also shows their college/hospital they attend/work at. This can be shown when

looking at "...Adjustable Gastric Band...". Right below the title has the four authors of this

journal. It also shows their title next to their name. Even with the other two articles, it can be

assumed that without an MD or some degree equivalent to it, it wouldn't be too likely to have

the opportunity to contribute to a medical journal. The authors aren't the only factor when

dealing with credibility, it also depends on the people they cite. When looking at all three

journals, they all have something in common: the work cited are from people who are credible

themselves. Without credibility, a writer won't have too high of a chance to be published.

How do these genres evoke emotions to the readers? They don't. These medical genres

do not attempt to bring out emotion of people; in this case of the medical community, facts and

graphs are what matter. On page 235 of "...Adjustable Gastric Band...", it shows three tables

and one graph showing information based on the results of the gastric band. "...Colonic

Surgery..." doesn't have any graphs or charts. It does, however, have Figures on pages 3,4 to

give visual aids to help with the nomenclature since it is based on anatomical position. The use

of graphs, charts, and figures shows that medical journals appeal to science.

The participation of the medical journals is limited to the members within or in the

process of going into the discourse community. When searching for medical journals online, it

came to my attention that, although not impossible, it is difficult to find a medical journal

without paying anything for it. Most medical journals online require to purchase some form of

membership to the whole site or to pay a one-time fee to purchase the one journal. Having a

cost to obtain a journal would limit the amount of people who are able to receive one. The use

of medical terminology to the people in the discourse community would be labeled as a

rhetorical situation since the members of the community use this second language every day.

With the amount of medical terminology found within the all the journals, it can be concluded

that these articles aren't for the general public. This can be seen in "...Myocardial Infarction..."

in the title alone. The average person would not be able to understand what "absolute or

relative changes in cardiac Troponin" means so it would be difficult for them to comprehend

the background of the journal alone. In this discourse community, the members use a lexis

within the medical journal which does limit the amount of people being able to understand the

genre to just the people in the community.

In conclusion to the analysis of the genres taken from the medical discourse community

that within the journals, the authors only focus on the facts; they avoid emotions completely. In

all journals, use of graphs, charts, statistics and other visual aids were used greatly to explain

the results of the method they are pushing. Not only that, but also the fact that the journals are

limited to the people within the discourse community. Also, it is not enough to be a member in

this discourse community to have work published; to have work published, not only does the

work cited have to be credible but you must yourself be credible.

Works Cited

Birch, Daniel W. Chiu, Chieh Jack. Karmali, Shahzeer. Shi, XinZhe. "Outcomes of the Adjustable

Gastric Band in a Publicly Funded Obesity Program." Canadian Medical Association 2013: Pages

233-236. Web

Booth, Christopher. The Origin And Growth of Medical Journals. ©1990 American College of

Physicians/American College of Physicians. http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=704090.

Web. 19 September 2013

Culligan, K. Remzi, F.H. Soop, M. Coffey, J.C. "Review of Nomenclature in Colonic Surgery-

Proposal of A Standardized Nomenclature Based On Mesocolic Anatomy." The Surgeon, Journal

of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of Edinburgh and Ireland 2012: Pages 1-5. Web

Irfan, Affan. Reichlin, Tobias. Twerenbold, Raphael. Meister, Marc. Moehring, Berit. Wildi, Karin.

Bassetti, Stefano. Zellweger, Christa. Gimenez, Maria Rubini. Hoeller, Rebeca. Murray, Karsten.

Sou, Seoung Mann. Mueller, Mira. Mosimann, Tamina. Reiter, Miriam. Haaf, Philip. Ziller, Ronny.

Freidank, Heike. Osswald, Stefan. Mueller, Christian. " Early Diagnosis of Myocardial Infarction

Using Absolute and Relative Changes in Cardiac Troponin Concentrations. " The American

Journal Of Medicine 2013: Pages 781-788. Web

Swales, John M. "2.2 Speech Communities and Discourse Communities. "Genre Analysis: English

in Academic and Research Settings." Cambridge [England: Cambridge UP, 1990. 23-24. Print.