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Genre

The genre I will be creating is going to be a diagnosis/ examination notes of some sort. The intended audience is other nurses and doctors. The purpose is the share the patient's conditions with other nurses and doctors in order to figure out the best way to treat the patient and give them the best care possible. I will need to do some research online and also maybe talk to nurses about how they go about writing diagnosis/ examination notes for their patients.

#Engl211 #genre

Discourse Community Ethnography: Nurses

All throughout high school, I stressed myself out about deciding what I wanted to do with my life. I was confused and I couldn’t figure out what path would be the right path for me to take. I am now a pre-nursing student at NMSU. I decided I wanted to study to become a nurse the day I realized that the thing I enjoy doing the most is helping people and being there for them. Being a nurse would make me feel satisfied and accomplished. Being a nurse would also mean being a part of a discourse community. There are a number of discourse communities that exist. They all have their specific shared goals. They work on these goals together every single day using their own type of communication whether written or verbal in order to achieve them. Because I am a pre-nursing student, the discourse community I chose to write my ethnography on is a group of nurses who work at Amber Care which is a company that provides home health care, personal care services, physical, occupational, and respiratory therapy, and medical equipment & supplies. I chose this particular discourse community, because I knew that by studying these nurses, I would get a pretty good idea of what it is like to be a nurse. I also knew that by studying this certain group, I would learn the different kinds of ways they communicated with each other and how important communication is in order to reach their goals. My mother Nayeli Patrick, who regularly volunteers at Amber Care, is the person I chose to interview. I chose to interview my mother, because she is also a pre-nursing student. She is about to apply for the nursing program at NMSU. She spends more than half her time studying and preparing for the program. She is the person who has inspired me and encourages me every day to achieve my goal of becoming a nurse. When I interviewed my mother and asked her why she wanted to become a nurse she responded with “I enjoy helping and being around people, while also staying active all day.”

To study this specific discourse community, I tagged along with my mother to Amber Care on Wednesday, March 26th. She was scheduled to volunteer that day. When we got there, one of the nurses invited us to join her in going to an elderly ladies house to care for her. My mom’s job as a volunteer was to assist the nurse with different tools and equipment and to help care for the elderly lady. When we got to the elderly ladies home, the first thing the nurse did was greet the elderly lady and asked her questions about how she had been feeling such as “How are you feeling today?” and “Are your knees feeling any better?” She then took her vital signs and recorded her symptoms and how she was feeling on a notepad she had. As she was doing these things, she was asking my mom to pass her specific tools and equipment. I didn’t recognize the names of the tools and equipment so that was something I considered to be a form a communication they used as a discourse community. The nurse also prescribed to the elderly lady a medication refill, which is also a form of written communication they use. I was not able to collect any materials from the nurse. I interviewed my mother later that day once I had time to reflect upon my field notes and thought about the different things I had just studied about the nurse and my mother working as a discourse community.

While studying the nurse and my mother, I was able to thoroughly answer each of Swales’ six characteristic questions. The nurse and my mother’s ultimate shared goal were to effectively give the best care to the elderly lady while they were there. They wanted to leave the elderly lady’s house with her being fully satisfied and comfortable with her health and the information the nurse gave her.

When I first got to Amber Care before we left to the elderly lady’s home, I noticed that the nurses there used telephones and computers meaning that they most likely use phone calls, emailing, and faxing to communicate with each other when needed. When I joined the nurse and my mother to the elderly lady’s home, I did not see the nurse use a phone or electronic device to email or text, but she did use verbal communication with my mother. She also took notes on her notepad when she was diagnosing the elderly lady. This is a form of written communication because she then took the notepad back with her to Amber Care to discuss what she took note of about the patient with the other nurses there. These notepads with information about the patient visit can be considered genres because only the nurses can fully understand what it means and what specific medical language and terms they are using to describe the diagnosis of the patient. The nurse also prescribed a prescription to the patient, which is also a form of written communication and is also considered a genre. These nurses use these genres to fully communicate with each other about what they are doing and what information they are gathering in order to achieve their shared goal which is to successfully give the best care to all of their patients. Some of the specialized language the nurse used includes names of medicines, names of medical tools and equipment, names of different body parts, and names of different illness and diseases.

The old-timers of this specific discourse community are the nurses who have been working at Amber Care for five or more years, because they have had time to gain a good amount of experience there and are now very familiar with the shared goals of the discourse community and are familiar with one another. The nurse my mother and I joined would be considered an old timer since she has been working as a nurse at Amber Care for about seven years now. My mother would be considered a new timer because she is still a nursing student and only works at Amber Care as a volunteer to gain experience to better prepare her for applying to the nursing program. Every time that my mom goes with one of the Amber Care nurses to assist them at an elderly person’s home, she is gaining more and more experience learning the language used to communicate with the nurses. She is also learning the different genres the nurses use to communicate with one another and becoming more familiar with them. Little by little, my mom will eventually become an old timer of the group if she decides to use her nursing degree to work at Amber Care.

Studying and observing the nurse from Amber Care and my mother assisting her has really opened my eyes to what being a nurse is actually going to be like. I learned a lot about how these nurses communicate with each other using specific languages and medical terms to understand each other. I learned that the nurses at Amber Care use both verbal and written form. When they use either one depends on the situation they are in. I learned that this discourse community’s main shared goal was to provide the best health care possible to their elderly patients at home and in order to do so; they used multiple types of communication. “Volunteering at Amber Care can be difficult sometimes, because I am still getting familiar with the way they communicate and the different medical terms they use.” my mother stated in the interview when I asked if understating the nurses communication methods was a hard thing to do. I also learned that in order to understand the different communication methods nurses use daily, I am going to have to prepare myself more with a lot of courses involving science and medical terms. Being a nurse in a discourse community seems like something I really want to do. It seems as though nurses learn to communicate with each other for the best reasons. Those reasons are to help and care for people who need to be taken care of. I want to be part of this kind of discourse community because helping people and making people’s lives better is my passion and what I want to do for the rest of my life. Becoming a nurse will allow me to do that.

Why it matters

What I have to say about my discourse community matters, because my discourse community is an important group of people. Nurses are hard workers and deserve a lot of appreciation from us for what they do. There are many reasons I want to become a nurse, and interviewing my mom (who is also a nursing student) made me realize just how hard I am willing to work to become a nurse. These reasons are why I think what I have to say about my discourse community matters.

#Engl211 #discoursecommunity

"I chose nursing, because I knew that helping people was what I wanted to do all my life."

-Nayeli Patrick, Nursing Student

#Engl211

Misery

So far, I have enjoyed watching the movie Misery. I really like suspenseful/ psychological movies. It does make me feel frustrated and anxious at times, but oddly enough I love when movies do that to people. It keeps me on the edge of my seat.

One stereotype that this films portrays about writers is that they are very stressed out people and that they have specifics when it comes down to writing such as their state of mind, or their environment in which they are in.

#Engl211 #misery

#Engl211 #writers #stereotypes

Interview Questions

What is your job in this particular community?

How do old timers get along with new timers?

What kind of language do you use to communicate with each other?

What is the ultimate goal that everyone is working together to reach?

Are there different ways you use to communicate at different times and in different situations?

Do you communicate differently with patients than you do with other members of your community?

Do you and your community do about the same thing every day or does what you do differ each day?

#Engl211

Scientists at work in a laboratory. They all share very similar if not the same goals.

#Engl211

Autoethnogrophy

Writing has always been a little bit of a challenge for me. I have always struggled with it and still do to this day. I dislike writing, but at the same time I want to improve myself as a writer and hopefully some day grow fond of writing because even though I don’t like to write, I do appreciate it in a lot of ways. I am aware of its importance, how critical good writing skills are, and how helpful it is to be familiar with your own writing process.

Before I wrote the prompt to this autoethnography and then studied my transcription to see how I went about my writing process, I really didn’t know what my writing process was like because I never really gave much thought to it. Once I studied my writing process, I came to the conclusion that knowing your own writing process is very important. I would consider my writing process to be effective, but it can also be improved. As I was listening to the recording of myself thinking aloud while writing my prompt, I realized that when I am writing a paper I tend to edit it and try to make it as perfect as possible while I am in the process of writing it so that I don’t have to go back and edit it later once I’m finished with it. I would change words in my sentences, completely delete sentences, worry about spelling errors or grammar errors, etc. This is one of the things I want to change about my writing process. I want to be able to write everything that I am thinking and getting all my ideas down on paper first before I begin to edit every little thing. By worrying so much about editing my paper while I’m writing it, I’m not letting myself think as clearly about what I actually want to say. If I got into the habit of doing this, I think I would be able to write better papers and say everything I want to say more effectively.

Another thing I noticed about my writing process is that I like to reread what I already wrote. I’ll reread sentences I just wrote, or even reread from the beginning. I do this because I want to make sure that what I am saying sounds like it makes sense. This causes me to get distracted. I also want to change this about my writing process, because it slows me down and causes me to lose focus on what I was planning to say next.

Trying to find “big” words or synonyms to make what I’m trying to say sound more professional and academic is something else I noticed I do. I didn’t really do this while I was writing the prompt, but I know I do this and have done it many times for other papers. I have realized that although it is good to sound academic and professional in your writing, it is always better to sound like yourself. Ever since I was little I would look up “big”, complicated words to use so that I sounded smarter than everybody else. I would use words I couldn’t really even understand myself. This is one aspect of my writing process that I have been improving lately, but that I would like to keep improving.

Overall, my writing process is not one that I am fully satisfied with. While looking through my transcription and coding my writing process, I have figured out that one of the main things that is holding me back from becoming a better writer is that I get distracted too easily while I am writing. I lose my train of thought easily, and I think that is one of the reasons I tend to reread what I just wrote or just focus on editing what I just wrote instead of actually writing my ideas down. I am never able to move on to the next sentence I want to write if I’m not content with the one I wrote before. I am never able to think straight if I feel like what I have been writing doesn’t sound good. I feel like these kinds of things are keeping me from writing the best that I can.

I have had the same writing process ever since I started writing. I try really hard when it comes to writing, but I know there’s a lot of room for improvement and I do want to improve. My writing process is not a bad one, but it can be a lot better in my opinion. I have learned a lot about myself and about my writing process because of this assignment. I would have never given much thought to my writing process otherwise. One good thing I noticed about the way I write is that I do think a lot about what I want to say which is good. By doing this, I am able to gather all of my thoughts and ideas and explain them the best that I can. By studying my writing process, I have learned what the main things I want to focus on improving are and I intend to just that. I want to be able to be confident in my writing and even more importantly be able to like writing so much that I want to write every day. I am most likely going to continue studying my writing process and finding more ways to improve it. I believe that if I improve my writing skills, I will also improve myself as a person. It is my goal to become a better writer so that writing becomes easier and more enjoyable for me.

#Engl211

Metacommentary

My autoethnography is an example of metacommentary because I am trying to explain what I am trying to say and making it as clear as possible to my audience. I always want to make sure that whoever reads what I write completely understands what I'm trying to say and doesn't interpret it to be something totally different. An example of metacommentary would be "My point is not that I am a bad writer, but that I have a lot of things to work on and improve in order to become a better writer."

#Engl211 #meta commentary

"Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones."

This quote from Stephen King's On Writing stood out to me, because I completely agree with it. Any book you read, whether it's a book you enjoy and actually want to read or if it's a boring book you don't really want to read, you'll get something out of it. You'll learn something new, and become a better writer because of it.

#Engl211 #stephen king

Coding

(RP) - Reading prompt instructions

(RR) - Reading what I just wrote/typed

(D) - Distraction

(RP) - Repeating words/thoughts

(T) - Thinking about prompt

(t) - Thinking about irrelevant things

(M) - Mumbling

(S) - Fixing misspelled words

(M) - Moving sentences

(D) - Deleting words/ sentences

(E) - Changing words

( p ) - pauses

(F) - Getting frustrated

#Engl211 #coding

AE Transcription

(clears throat)…. okay. AE prompt… double-spaced… double-spaced. Okay. Uh, formal… look at your development as a writer and reader over time and find one to two sponsors… people, books, school, life experience… played an important role in your growth… (mumbling)… as a writer and reader… um… influence of these sponsors on your development as a literate person… be sure to support your claims through examples and clear explanations… okay. Alright… (sniff) Okay… so… my development as a writer and a reader has been… what in the world… there you go… has been… has been a long… and… still ongoing process? Is that a good way to say that? My development as a writer and a reader has been a long and still ongoing process… no, that doesn’t sound right, but I’ll just fix that later… um… many… why is this page messing up? Oh my gosh… um… many… um… things have influenced… influenced who I am as a writer and a reader today… (clears throat)… many things have influenced who I am as a writer and a reader today… two of the most important… important things… ugh… things that have influenced me… have been… reading… and my dad… (sniff)… when I was about… how old was I?... I was about… how old was I?... when I was about twelve… yeah I was twelve… twelve years old… twelve years old… I started reading the… H-… I started reading the Harry Potter books… the Harry Potter books… (mumbling)… oh my god… okay… there you go… okay… I started reading the Harry Potter books… I read them every day… every day… there were… there were a lot of words I didn’t quite understand… and… there were a lot of words… words… in the books I didn’t quite understand yet… because… I was so young… but… but… but reading them… reading them (clears throat)… improved my reading and… my reading, writing, and vocabulary skills… and vocabulary skills… um… (long pause) okay, so… my development as a writer and a reader has been a long and still ongoing process… has been… oh, lets change that… has been a long process… and… is still an ongoing… has been a long… should we say long? I don’t know… and is still an ongoing… an ongoing… (mumbling)… has been reading books?... (mumbling)… I read them every day… I read them every night, not every day… there… (mumbling)… vocabulary skills… (pauses and mumbling)… there were… other books I liked… liked reading… but the Harry Potter books were… my favorite books to read… (clears throat)… that sentence should go somewhere else… that sentence does not fit there… um… (phone vibrates)… twitter… David favorited… okay… okay, focus… the Harry Potter books were my favorite books to read… oh, crap… (clears throat)… were my favorite books to read… um… (long pause)… reading… reading books definitely… definitely helped… definitely not only helped my reading skills… but it also… oh gosh… helped my writing skills… (mumbling)… reading definitely not only helped my writing skills… oh wait… reading books not only helped my reading… reading books did not only helped my reading skills but it also helped my writing skills… it helped me with structuring sentences… it helped my with structuring sentences… what else… (long pause)… oh, it helped me with structuring sentences… um… sentences… um… a better choice of words?... a better choice of words… and… even with my creativity… okay… (pause)… and even with my creativity… (long pause)… lets put… lets go back to the beginning… my development as a writer and a reader has been a long process and is still an ongoing process… I have never really considered myself a strong writer… because… because for some reason it has always… has always been difficult to me… difficult to me or for me?... difficult for me… for me… um… (pause)… for me… um… (clears throat)… but I do think… but I do think I have… I have… I have grown as a writer… and I am still growing… and still… wait, no… still… becoming an even stronger writer… many things have influenced who I am as a writer today… two of the most important things that have influenced me have been reading books… and my dad… (mumbling)… (sigh)… look at your development as a writer and a reader over time and find one to two sponsors… oh I can choose only one… people, books, school, life experiences… that have played an important role in your growth… (clears throat)… (can’t understand what I said here)… oh, as a literate person… (pause)… okay… um… many things have influenced who I am as a writer… two of the most important things… have been reading books and my dad… I started reading Harry Potter books… I read them every night… (mumbling)… because I was so young… but reading them improved my reading, writing, vocabulary skills… (mumbling)… but the Harry Potter books are my favorite books to read… lets put this sentence… control… copy… lets put this sentence… right here… okay, now to erase this one… okay… um… reading books not only helped my reading skills… but it also helped my writing skills… it helped me with structuring sentences… it, um... um… it helped me… it helped me… it helped me have a better choice of words… and it even helped me… ahhhh, no… backspace… it even helped… helped me… and it even helped me with my creativity… (clears throat)… okay… one… one of the main problems I have always had with writing… (cough)… is that… (pause)… is that I… what was I… oh my gosh… okay… is that… (yawn)… I always know what I want to say, but it is always difficult… difficult to put my ideas into words… no… but it has always been difficult, not it is always difficult… but it has always been difficult to put my ideas… my ideas into words… into words… into words… reading… reading books such as the Harry Potter books has helped me… or I’m just going to… no… I’m just going to put reading books… has helped me… has helped me with… figuring out… how… how to put what I want to say on paper… because… how to put what I want to say on paper… because… because they almost… no, not almost… because they give me… no, because they… ugh… they… because they… (pause)… oh my gosh, I can’t think of the word I want to say… because they act as an… example to me… okay… my dad… my dad has been… okay… so uh moving on to my dad… okay, my dad has been… a huge influence on me when it comes to my… my writing and reading processes… (long pause)… he himself writes and reads more than anyone I know… he himself writes and reads more than anyone I know… ever… ever since I was little my dad would… make me… would make me… write? Yeah… he would make me write about… so he would make me write about… oh my gosh… okay… he would make me write about anything I felt like writing about that happened to me that day… that given day… given day… whether it be… whether… whether it be something that happened at school… at school… something I saw I thought was interesting… interesting… or even something I read… (clears throat)… um… (pause)… okay, my dad would make me write every day… (mumbling)… anything I felt like writing about… whether it be something… whether it… it could have been something that happened at school, something I saw I thought was interesting or even something… or even something that I read… (pause)… I hated it at the time… because I hated writing… but now I… now I… ahhhh.. I… now I have learned to appreciate it… because… because it helped me… tremendously… with my writing skills… um… writing… or free writing… ugh… spelled it wrong… free writing about something every day… about every day… free writing about something every day… even… even if it was about something that wasn’t really important… still helped me… helped me become the writer I am today… (long pause)… (clears throat)… what else do I want to say?... what else do I want to say?... (singing)… okay… um… um… okay… it wasn’t until high school that I be-… that I… begun to have to write research papers… (mumbling)… that I had to… had to start (clears throat) writing… writing, um… papers… it wasn’t until high school that I had to start writing papers… (pause)… it was… it was… uh… at first… it was very hard… for me… and I had to get a lot of help from my dad (clears throat)… um… had to get a lot of help from my dad... this is really hard, I cannot… I can’t think if I’m trying to say everything, okay… it was very hard for me and I had to get a lot of help my dad… come on, focus… focus… (very long pause)… (clears throat)… from my dad… um… I had… I had difficult, no wait… I had… I had difficult… difficulties with… with… trying to make my papers… papers make sense… trying to… trying to… trying to fully explain what I wanted to say… as I wrote more and more papers it began to become easier for me… for me… (mumbling)… things became… or, it began to become easier… easier… easier and I found that I could write more smoothly… does that even make sense?... write more smoothly… smoothly… smoothly… write more smoothly, okay… um… I became more confident with my writing as time went… (long pause)… I’m sleepy… okay, um… (mumbling)… I hope I like write… I hope I’m explaining everything well… I hope I’m giving examples… like clear examples… with my writing as time went by… um… (pause)… okay, so I still… I still consider myself to be a… no, I still… um… I still struggle with writing to this day and I sometimes feel discouraged… no, I sometimes with… no… I sometimes still feel discouraged about it… about it… about it, um… I have… I have learned that… that… that the better… the better I want to become at writing, the more I need to write and read… (long pause)… to write and read… the more I need to write and read… and the more I do that… the easier writing or writing will be… um… for me… will become for me… (singing)… why am I singing? Oh my gosh, I get distracted to easily… okay… and the more I do that the easier writing will become for me… (mumbling)… I hope I find more things to influence… me positively as a writer and reader… (long pause)… I wish I had more but I don’t know what to add… (I go back to reread what I have written and make a few additional changes)… and I hope I keep becoming a stronger writer… (end)

#Engl211 #omg #transcription

What Is Writing?

Writing is being able to express thoughts, ideas, and emotions. Writing is simply expression.

#Engl211 #writing

observando

You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.

Stephen King, On Writing (via observando)

Autoethnography Prompt: My Development As a Reader and Writer

My development as a writer and a reader has been a long process and is still an ongoing process for me. I have never really considered myself a strong writer, because for some reason it has always been difficult for me. But I do think I have grown as a writer and I am still becoming an even stronger writer every day. Many things have influenced who I am as I writer and a reader today. Two of the most important things that have influenced me are the books I have read and my dad.

When I was about 12 years old, I started reading the Harry Potter books. I read them every night because I enjoyed them so much. There were other books I liked reading, but the Harry Potter books were my favorite books to read. There were a lot of words in the books I didn’t quite understand yet because I was so young. I would get frustrated when I read them and didn’t know what they meant, so I would always look them up in a dictionary. Doing this improved my reading, writing, and vocabulary skills. Reading books not only helped my reading skills, but it also helped my writing skills. It helped me with structuring sentences, it helped me have a better choice of words, and it even helped me with my creativity. One of the main problems I have always had with writing is that I always know what I want to say, but it has always been difficult to put my ideas into words. Reading books has helped me with figuring out how to put what I want to say on paper, because they act as an example for me.

My dad has been a huge influence on me when it comes to my writing and reading development. He himself writes and reads more than anyone I know. Ever since I was little, my dad would make me write something every day about anything I felt like writing about that happened to me that given day. It could have been something that happened at school, something I saw I thought was interesting, or even something I read. I hated it at the time, because I hated writing. But now I have learned to appreciate that he made me do it because it helped me tremendously with my writing skills. Free writing about something every day, even if it was about something that wasn’t really important, still helped me become the writer I am today. Writing down my thoughts helped me with different writing skills.

It wasn’t until high school that I had to start writing papers. At first, it was very hard for me and I had to get a lot of help from my dad. I had difficulties with trying to make my papers make sense, and trying to fully explain what I wanted to say. As I wrote more and more papers, it began to become easier and I found that I could write more smoothly. I became more and more confident with my writing as time went by.

I still struggle with writing to this day, and I sometimes still feel discouraged about it. I have learned that the better I want to become at writing, the more I need to write and read, and the more I do that, the easier writing will become for me. I hope I find more things to influence me positively as a writer and a reader.

#Engl211

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