Student Example English 1010-E03 Prof. D MARK March 17, 2016
Helping a Community Attain a Healthy and Beautiful Smile: A Discourse Community Analysis of a Dental Office
The modern definition of health was created for the Constitution of the World Health Organization and signed on July 22, 1946. The definition claims, "Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" (100). Based on this concept, dentistry is a branch of medicine that is involved in the study, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases and disorders of the oral cavity and the adjacent structures and tissues. This dental treatment is carried out by a dentist and her dental team. Success of a dental private practice relies on effective communication between staff members and their ability to share common goals. Consistent observation, analyses of documents like board publications and reports, and interviews with the office’s staff members reveal that the dental private practice of Dove Family Dentistry (DFD) is a discourse community according to Swales’s six characteristics.
Summary of Swales’s Characteristics
John Swales is a professor of linguistics and co-director of the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English at the University of Michigan. He says that in order for a group of people to be a discourse community they have to share six characteristics. The first of these is that “A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common goals. These public goals may be formally inscribed in documents, or they may be more tacit” (Swales 220). This means that the members of the group all work for the same goal, even if that goal is not written down somewhere. For example, in football
(
Example
1
)
and many other sports, each team member knows that the ultimate goal is to score more points than the opposing team.
The second characteristic proclaims, “A discourse community has mechanisms of communication among its members” (221). This means that the people inside a discourse community are able to communicate with one another. For example, inside a law office, people communicate through meetings, telecommunications, newsletters, and conversational. The third characteristic builds on the second, exposing the idea that “A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback” (221). Here, Swales is talking about the content of the ways the group communicates. In a workplace, for instance, information is given in meetings and feedback comes in the form of addressing the issues discussed in those meetings. The consecutive characteristic states that “A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims” (221). This proves how genres articulate the operations of discourse communities. The genre is the channel through which the information travels. For example, inside the discourse community of the.
Student Example English 1010-E03 Prof. D MARK March 17, 2016.docx
1. Student Example English 1010-E03 Prof. D MARK March 17,
2016
Helping a Community Attain a Healthy and Beautiful Smile: A
Discourse Community Analysis of a Dental Office
The modern definition of health was created for the Constitution
of the World Health Organization and signed on July 22, 1946.
The definition claims, "Health is a state of complete physical,
mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of
disease or infirmity" (100). Based on this concept, dentistry is a
branch of medicine that is involved in the study, diagnosis,
prevention, and treatment of diseases and disorders of the oral
cavity and the adjacent structures and tissues. This dental
treatment is carried out by a dentist and her dental team.
Success of a dental private practice relies on effective
communication between staff members and their ability to share
common goals. Consistent observation, analyses of documents
like board publications and reports, and interviews with the
office’s staff members reveal that the dental private practice of
Dove Family Dentistry (DFD) is a discourse community
according to Swales’s six characteristics.
Summary of Swales’s Characteristics
John Swales is a professor of linguistics and co-director of the
Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English at the University
of Michigan. He says that in order for a group of people to be a
discourse community they have to share six characteristics. The
first of these is that “A discourse community has a broadly
agreed set of common goals. These public goals may be
formally inscribed in documents, or they may be more tacit”
(Swales 220). This means that the members of the group all
work for the same goal, even if that goal is not written down
somewhere. For example, in football
2. (
Example
1
)
and many other sports, each team member knows that the
ultimate goal is to score more points than the opposing team.
The second characteristic proclaims, “A discourse community
has mechanisms of communication among its members” (221).
This means that the people inside a discourse community are
able to communicate with one another. For example, inside a
law office, people communicate through meetings,
telecommunications, newsletters, and conversational. The third
characteristic builds on the second, exposing the idea that “A
discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms
primarily to provide information and feedback” (221). Here,
Swales is talking about the content of the ways the group
communicates. In a workplace, for instance, information is
given in meetings and feedback comes in the form of addressing
the issues discussed in those meetings. The consecutive
characteristic states that “A discourse community utilizes and
hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative
furtherance of its aims” (221). This proves how genres
articulate the operations of discourse communities. The genre is
the channel through which the information travels. For example,
inside the discourse community of the Composition 1010
classroom, the genres are verbal speech, text messages, notes,
drafts, homework assignments, eCourseware, and e-mails
between others.
Swales’s fifth characteristic expresses, “In addition to owing
genres, a discourse community has acquired some specific
lexis” (222). This explains how discourse communities have
specific words or phrases that they use to communicate in more
specific ways. These range between regular words known to the
3. wider speech communities used in special and technical ways,
or work-specific terms, abbreviations, acronyms, and highly
technical terminology as in medical communities where the
lexis used inside a medical practice between doctors and
medical assistants is often not understood by patients.
Finally, the last of Swales’s characteristics denotes that “A
discourse community has a threshold level of members with a
suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise”
(222). This explains how
discourse communities have changing memberships, involving a
balance of personnel with high levels of expertise (or the “old
timers”) and novices (or the “new comers”) with less expertise.
This characteristic also explains how people enter an
organization or group, and how they leave it.
Basic Information about the Dove Family Dentistry Discourse
Community
Dr. Dove is a general dentist who focuses his practice on the
needs of the family, with a goal to serve those who are
traditionally underserved in receiving dental care. He tailors his
clinical hours to accommodate the needs of the working family
and reach the Spanish-speaking community. He is a firm
believer in education and progress through education. He shares
his philosophy with his staff and their slogan is “Team work
makes the dream work.”
DFD has a working staff of fifteen members; six of them are
bilingual. They have twelve “old timer” members with different
levels of expertise, and three “new comers” that are still
adapting to the office style. The majority of the employees are
from different countries such as India, Mexico, Puerto Rico,
Venezuela, and the States. This makes the dental practice a
multidisciplinary and multicultural environment.
Methodology
4. The analysis of this discourse community shows how important
is to maintain effective communication to be a successful
practice. It additionally demonstrates how important it is for the
Spanish-speaking community to have the opportunity to
communicate with the doctor in order to address their concerns.
DFD is an office located in the intersection of Covington Pike
and Stage Road and was observed during a period of two weeks
in Feb. 2016, by a staff member. The observation took place
within regular office hours and was guided by Swales’s six
characteristics. The interviews with Dr.
Dove, Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Kendall, Mrs. Stevanott and Mrs.
Barrios occurred after the observations were made, and those
interviewed were members of each level of the practice in order
to determine
if information is handled in the same way at all levels. These
interview consisted of five open-ended questions (Appendix B)
asked in private about the common goals and communication
between the staff. These questions permitted a direct view of
office performance and showed how DFD is a discourse
community.
Swales’s Characteristics Applied to Dove Family Dentistry
Discourse Community and Analysis DFD is an excellent
example of a discourse community. The six swales
characteristics are
clearly defined and easy to recognize. DFD shares the common
goal to provide a welcoming environment to the
underrepresented patients, making them feel at home while
giving the best dental care possible. Even though there are
personal goals involved within each particular position inside
the office. For example, at the front desk the personal needs to
have the paper-work ready for the day. One of the most
important goals of the entire office is putting the patient needs
5. first, making them feel as comfortable as possible during the
dental treatment.
DFD does communicate among itself in more than one way.
They use verbal speech, meetings, reports, board postings,
emails, and phone calls. Each member of the DFD discourse
community has an important role in order for the practice to be
successful, and effective communication permits the practice to
function properly. Sometimes there is a breakage in the channel
of communication and the information in the message does not
reach the listeners. For example, in a meeting held by the office
manager about the office cleaning, the staff was distracted and
the message was not acquired. After a week, Mrs. Jones was
disappointed about the staff’s cleaning performance. So, she
had to post a note in the break-room board as a refresher about
the previous meeting. That reflects that written instructions are
more effective than spoken instructions. As the instructions are
directed by one expert through verbal speech, sometimes the
novice is overwhelmed with information and gets lost through
the learning process. If a guide book were
handled to the novice prior to the work day, the novice would
know what to expect and how to be effective in his or her
performance.
The purpose of the group’s communication is to share
information, reinforce values, make money, improve
performance and offer support. Inside DFD staff talking about
information content. The information exchange travels from the
top of the pyramid to the bottom levels, obtaining feedback
since it is a work area. When Dr. Dove sends information to the
manager, Mrs. Jones is responsible for distributing the
information to the rest of the staff. For example, after a meeting
with Dr. Dove, Mrs. Jones posted a communication on the board
informing the days the office would be closed on holidays. In
this case, the feedback is not immediately required. In other
6. occasions Dr. Dove communication is directed to the staff, as is
the case of a group text message sent after a hard day to thank
the staff for their efforts and support. In this particular case the
feedback is the reply text messages. In a different scenario the
feedback is needed with promptitude. For example, after a
survey about professional harassment was handled to the staff,
they had to fill it out and return it to the manager in less than
three working days.
In DFD there are different channels through which the
information travels. Authority in this office goes from the top
of the pyramid to the bottom and is established in each
department by seniority. There is a high level of communication
between the top part of the pyramid with Dr.
Dove and his associates, MB2 Company, and a less specialized
type of communication moving down the pyramid. The
pyramid’s first floor communicates daily through phone calls,
once-a-week video-conferences, everyday reports, faxes, and
emails. Between Dr. Dove and Mrs. Jones, the fastest way of
communication is through verbal speech. Mrs. Jones
communicates with the rest of the staff via verbal speech, board
postings, and established once-a-month meetings. Between the
rests of the staff the communication is direct, through direct
verbal speech, phone calls, and text messages. Between the
office and the insurance companies, communication is through
faxes, emails,
correspondence and phone calls. Between the office and the
patients, communication is through phone calls confirming and
scheduling appointments, and through correspondence.
Implying the lexis characteristic DFD do share a particular
lexis. This lexis is composed of highly technical terminology,
used in abbreviations and acronyms, and other words related to
location- specific terms. For example: RCT for root canal
treatment, SPR for scaling and root planning, EXT for
7. extraction, hot tooth for an incoming patient in pain, and PCP
for problem child patient. Other words related to locations
inside the facility are: X-ray room, break-room, playroom,
sterilization area, laboratory, and operating rooms #1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Attributing membership and level of expertise characteristic,
the experts inside the office are the owners, Dr. Dove and MB2
Company. The personal with high level of expertise that entered
the office from the beginning or the “Old Timers” are Mrs.
Jones, Mrs. Kendall, and Mrs. Tucker. The rest of the staff has a
relative level of expertise depending on their time working for
the company.
The part of the staff that are considered “New Comers” or
novices, are those who have been in the office for one year or
less. As soon as a new employee enters the office, one of the
experts takes care of it and explains how everything works and
shadows the novice to teach her or him how to function. Talking
about patients, regular or old customers are experts and new
patients are novices.
In order to enter the office, the process is through application
and hiring. To leave the office the employee must quit, or get
fired. In DFD, there is a 40 % bilingual staff who communicate
with the underrepresented Spanish speaking community, which
makes the office efficient in delivered dental care. This means
that the other 60 % of the office have trouble communicating
with this community. And that is why team work makes the
dream work; each member of this group covers the back of
another co-worker.
Conclusion
Based on the study of Swales’s six characteristics of a discourse
community and the observations and the interviews withheld
with the Dove Family Member staff, it is clear and evident that
Dove Family Dentistry is a discourse community. This
8. community shares common goals, different types of
communications, lexis, genres, and sends information between
its members obtaining feedback. What is special about this
group is that they care about people, making them feel part of a
larger family. On the other hand, they give to the
underrepresented community the chance to obtain the same
quality dental care that everybody deserves.
Works Cited
Nordqvist, Christian. "What Is Health? What Does Good Health
Mean?." Medical News Today.
MediLexicon, Intl., 1 Jul. 2015. Web. (100)
Swales, Jhon. “The Concept of Discourse Community”. Writing
about Writing: A College Reader. ed. 2. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle
and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2014. 215-227.
Print.
Dove, Joseph. Personal Interview. 26 Feb. 2016. Jones,
Deborah. Personal Interview. 26 Feb. 2016. Mamoot, Zakia.
Personal Interview. 26 Feb. 2016. Kendall, Sharricka. Personal
Interview. 26 Feb. 2016. Stevanot, Naishla. Personal Interview.
26 Feb. 2016. Barrios, Wenmar. Personal Interview. 26 Feb.
2016.
Appendix A
10. 4. What do you think is the best way of communication inside
the office? It is effective?
Would you change it?
5. What do you think are specific words that you use inside the
office that not everybody would understand outside of it?
