Specific Research Questions:

Assignment: 
Write two or three very specific research questions that you might want to use to build your paper around.

1) How do the different forms of writing and communication in medical fields effect the day-to-day life of the doctor/patient relationship?
2)How do communication barriers effect the relationship between a patient and their doctor?
3)What kinds of communication work best in the medical field between both the patient and other coworkers. How can these forms of communication be improved upon in our society future, and who has the power to change this?

Assignment #3 Textual Rhetorical Analysis Paper

Amanda Gridley

Amanda Gridley

English 250

A.R. Mallory

February 26, 2014

Textual Rhetorical Analysis

The purpose of my article is to reflect upon the students in the optical field, and what  methods and materials best help them to learn and study. The information was collected through the survey of enrolled students, and presented in an essay format with visual charts to display the information. With this information, educators are able to decide which teaching method they should use in order to best helps the students to succeed, and which methods to avoid. 

The article titled, Optometry and WebCT: A Student Survey of the Value of Web-based Learning Environments in Optometric Education, was organized and written by Peter Herse and Alvin Lee. The purpose of the article was to express the findings of what optical students prefer to use to both help them learn in the classroom, and study outside of class. With this information the intended audience, the educators of the university, are able to make teaching arrangements that will better help their students. 

In order to convey the results, the authors typed up an essay document composed of multiple parts that make the data easy to follow. The introduction is typed into three small parts titled Purpose, Methods, and Results. These are real brief paragraphs that explain the information as an overall big picture, and sum-up the essay as a whole. This is nice for the intended audience, because it saves time for the educators who are simply looking for quick ideas while planning their teaching methods. Instead of reading the entire essay that follows, they can skim these introduction paragraphs, and get the big picture. The actual essay follows. The essay goes into greater detail than the intro paragraphs, and is intended for the audience who want to take a deeper look into why the results are the way they are. Also included in the body of the essay are multiple tables of the collected data. This is a great visual for the audience, and does a good job of presenting the information in a way that is easy to understand. The audience members can look at the table and relate to the conclusion described in the text. It makes the writing much more supported and entertaining to read. 

With the data collected, and the intended audience in mind, this article does a great job of presenting the information in a way that is easy to follow and understand. The main reason for this is the great organization. The separation of the intro, essay, and data tables, makes the information available in a way that gets the point across while still keeping your attention. The context provides the necessary information without going into long explanations or irrelevant facts. Also the style of the document, being asymmetrical, keeps your eyes moving to the key parts of the article. Overall the delivery of the information was very successful. The important facts were stated in a way that is easy to follow, and the conclusion was well supported for the audience through the essay and data tables. 

Through the careful organization and style of the writing, this article effectively and efficiently fulfills the purpose of communicating the student survey results to the intended audience of the optical educators.

Article I will be Rhetorically Analyzing in my Upcoming Paper

I will be rhetorically analyzing the same link that I did a summery for earlier in the semester. This article is about optical education, which is my intended career path. The direct link to the article is below.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1444-0938.2005.tb06663.x/full
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Assignment #2: Visual Rhetorical Analysis

Amanda Gridley

A.R. Mallory

English 250

February 16, 2014

Visual Rhetorical Analysis in my Career Field

Rhetorical analysis is taking a closer look at the deep meaning of anything that has been created; this could be written, visual, or a verbal discussion. Taking a deep look into something can reveal its true meaning as well as meanings that are hidden by the creator. Both of which communicate a message to their intended audience. Almost anything can be analyzed rhetorically, including artwork. The Figure in the image below caught my eye, because it is related to my career field. Like all artwork, it can be easily analyzed by the people to whom are the intended audience to reveal the message it expresses.

The artwork is of two human figures sitting across from each other, one presumably representing a patient and the other being an optometrist. The patient sits in a comfortable chair, complete with arm rests and an extended leg rest. The human figure sits comfortably and looks into a small machine that hangs at eye level in-front of him. The second human figure, presumably the doctor, sits across from the patient figure on a small wheeled stool, adjusting the machinery. The two figures are attached at the feet, and sit so close they almost bump knees. The entire figurine is constructed out of metal that resemble small parts like nails, screws, and bolts, and has a shinny appearance with smooth, sanded down edges. Most of us have been to one eye clinic or another, and after looking at this art piece, recognize it as just another routine check up in freeze-frame. 

The whole idea of artwork is to either appreciate and interpret the meaning the artist intended, or for the audience to give the piece its own meaning, based on what he/she can relate it too. This is rhetorical analysis; finding the underlining meaning of the piece. Because the art-piece above relates to my future career, I found it interesting and fun to break down the little components of the sculpture to try and figure out what message the artist was tying to express through his work. The idea of using parts like nails, screws, and bolts could represent what goes on in the optometrist’s head while he or she works, like the metaphorical “gears-turning” expression used when something is thinking. Also, the difference in chair style sets a theme of who’s in charge. Over-all, however, I believe the main idea or message of the entire figurine is to show the relationship of a patient and his/her doctor. The closeness of the two figurines and patient’s comfortable demeanor both prove this point.

While a lot of people can easily understand what is going on in the sculpture through their personal experiences of going to an eye doctor, not all of these people fully appreciate what this piece actually communicates. The sculpture itself is is dull and not particularly eye catching. It shows a commonly understood scene and doesn’t have any features that are so unique, you be disappointed if you missed out on. In fact, I would bet most people would walk right by this piece without further observation if it was displayed in a museum. Art is only interesting if you are interested in the art. Because of this, I believe the intended audience is only the selected few of whom are optometrists, or those who have an interest in the actions in which optometrists do. These are the people who express interest in the field of study, and therefor are willing to take the time to study the piece, out of interest, to better understand the meaning behind it. I feel like with this group of intended audience, the argument that there is a close relationship between a patient and his/her doctor is very effective, and that through rhetorical analysis anyone interested should be able to understand and appreciate this piece for what it is.

Rhetorical analysis happens everyday, even if you don’t notice you are doing it.  After rhetorical analyzing the small metal art piece, I was able to determine the representation of the different aspects of the piece, and from there, was able to figure out who the intended audience was. I believe this piece does a very effective job at portraying it’s point to its audience, and I hope to see more like it.

Visual Rhetoric in my Chosen Field

Below is the link to an image of a small sculpture the provides a visual rhetoric for my chosen field; Optometry.

http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/archives-and-museum/museum-collections/decorative-items-art-photos

The name of the figure is "Optometrist Sculpture" and is a sculpture of an Optometrist checking a patent's eyes with common machinery. The Sculpture is made completely out of a black metal and miscellaneous hardware such as bolts and springs. Even though the piece is small, it still conveys its meaning to its audience. I believe tho sculpture's audience to be people whom have in interest in the health field, specifically those who work with (and as) optometrists. With such a small frame of audience, the piece is able to have deep meaning behind the aspects of it without having to simplify it down so that others, who aren't the immediate audience, can understand. The meaning behind the piece, or so I believe, is to visually represent the job of the optometrist. The simple design shows the interaction between the doctor and the patient. The material used to make the sculpture represents the puzzle pieces, or nuts and bolts, of the doctor trying to figure out what is troubling the patient and how to best correct it. Even though the piece is small and simple, it does a great job of expressing the typical day-to-day job of the optometrist, and expressing the meaning of importance in a relationship between a doctor and patient.

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Rhetorical Analysis

Amanda Gridley

English 250

A.R. Mallory

February 5th

Rhetorical Analysis

One of my more recent rhetorical analysis’s was done during my senior year of high school. It was during the second half of the second semester of my AP English class, when we began to study and analyze different elements of movies, and how they represented different aspects of the point the director was tying to make.

The first movie that we did a rhetorical analysis over was “Avatar.” This was my personal favorite out of all the movies we observed, because a lot of different concepts were covered and I learned a lot. The class discussed how the creator of the movie, accomplished their purpose of creating a great action/adventure/fantasy/sci-fi, as was the goal, and had great character development and organization. We guessed that the purpose was for quality entertainment, and we believed this was accomplished through years of work and good actor selection. 

The audience was also important to keep in mind when creating the movie. Because the movie’s genres are action, adventure, fantasy, and sci-fi, the typical audience are people who enjoy those kinds of movies. Because, most children under the age of 12, don’t typically watch these kinds of genres, more adult content can be added to the context of the movie.

I learned a lot while doing rhetorical analysis's on movies, but Avatar was my favorite because it had purpose, good development and organization, and an intended audience that I was a part of.

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Summary Reflection

Amanda Gridley

English250

A.R. Mallory

February 03, 2014

Summary Reflection

The summary assignment was very different from anything I have ever written. Most of the other papers I wrote, both through high school and first semester at Iowa State University, were either research papers or opinionated essays. It was actually nice to be able to expand through different writing styles, and read other people’s view points in a PDF format. In all honestly, I probably would not have chosen to read these kinds of articles in my free time if not for this assignment. I also liked that the topic of the assignment was over the career paths that we have chosen. It made the assignment more interesting because the readings reflect our future. Writing about a more relatable topic is much easier than a non-relatable one.

Not only was this assignment actually enjoyable, but I got the opportunity to learn a little bit about how my career path communicates both through writing and other aspects of communication. I learned that good communication is very important, and that some forms work better than others. Also with-in my field, different forms of communication fit one situation better than another. Using these forms in the correct situations is a learned process, and I think with more readings, I can learn how to distinguish. 

Over all, I actually really enjoyed this assignment. I liked writing in a different format than the average research paper or essay, and I learned a little about my career path. I hope to do more of this kind of writing in my future. 

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