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Beckstedt1
Carly Beckstedt
Intermediate Composition
Professor Refaei
May 19, 2016
Genre Analysis
Imagine you are at a doctor’s office. It could be for any reason, but when you first get
there, you are given forms to fill out. While we all might hate filling out a bunch of paperwork, it
is an essential part of any doctor visit. These forms are a very important way for you as the
patient to communicate with your health care professional. These documents can vary in form,
but they all have the same purpose. They all help the doctor gather information about a patient
whether it be about medical insurance, medical history, pain tolerance, or health goals. Knowing
more about a patient will help the health care professional decide on a plan for their medical
needs. I am going to focus my genre analysis on two patient evaluation forms, Individual form-
Physical therapy in hemodialysis by Rocha, Magalhaes, and Lima and General Forms by Sher
Pelvic Health and Healing, .LLC. Many health care professionals use this genre, but I am going
to narrow my focus even more and analyze patient evaluation forms for physical therapists since
I will be going into that field in the future.
A patient evaluation form is more than just what the name suggests. It is a form used in
health care professions that allows the patient to do a self-assessment of their medical history,
pain tolerance, health goals, and their injury in question. Attached at the bottom of this analysis
are two general samples of a patient evaluation form. As one can see, these forms bring a lot of
information to the table for the health care professional so it is very important that someone in
this job is capable of reading one. The form contains some medical terms for the physical
therapist to be able to decipher and understand. Since it is a necessity that the physical therapist
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knows the medical jargon that is associated with the form, one can assume that a discourse
community has been formed. These forms are crucial for this discourse community because they
give the physical therapist a lot of health information about the patient that can help them come
up with a diagnosis and a treatment plan. After reading my analysis, I hope my readers will be
able to understand how important this genre is for health care professionals, and that if they
encounter one at a doctor’s office they will take the time to answer honestly.
The setting of a patient evaluation form is in a physical therapy office. It is transmitted
and used when a patient begins physical therapy treatment. On the patient evaluation forms
below, one can see that the forms are used to collect as much background information about a
patient as possible. They start out with basic information such as name, gender, date of birth,
height, weight, etc. then go on to ask how the injury happened, where the pain is, the severity of
the pain, and the kind of pain (tingling or numbness). All of this information is used along with
medical records, surgery records, and family medical history to assess the patient and give a
diagnosis. The physical therapists write the forms, while the patient writes the answers to the
questions on the forms. Both the physical therapist and patient are viewed as the reader as well.
The patient is reading the form so it should be written with that in mind. The physical therapist
must write it in a way that the patient will be able to understand what is being asked. Along with
the physical therapists writing the form, it is also possible that multiple health care physicians
work as a team to write the form. This ensures that all of the bases are covered, meaning the
physical therapists gets all of the information that is needed. On the patient evaluation form
below it asks, “What medical help have you sought for current problem?” (General Forms). This
proves that the physical therapist will use that information of which health care professionals
they’ve been with to figure out a plan that will help this patient. These groups of people are
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working together to create a genre so that they can communicate with each other. In order to
create the genre, a discourse community forms. They start to use their own kind of jargon
because they all have similar values, beliefs, and needs.
As stated above, both the physical therapist and patient share the role of “reader”. The
patients read these forms in order to answer and communicate with them. The patient uses the
form to do a self-assessment of how their injury is affecting them. In order to accept help for an
injury, the patient who is also the reader, must be open-minded and understanding. If the patient
is open-minded, they will be able to answer the questions on the form honestly, thus allowing the
physical therapist to come up with a sounder and professional treatment plan. The patient also
must be understanding of why the physical therapist may need to know some of the things that
are asked on the patient evaluation form. For example, on the first form below, it reads, “Are you
pregnant?” (“General Forms”), some people may find that to be personal information. In order to
decide if the physical therapist should complete an x-ray they need to be sure that the patient is
not pregnant so that if they need to perform an x-ray they will be certain that it will do no harm
to the patient. Asking questions on the form will get answers from the patient that could help
when diagnosing the problem. Once the form is filled out, the physical therapist will then read
the answers and determine a strategy for helping the patient. Here the patient communicates as
the writer and the health care professional changes to the reader. It is when this happens that if
either side has questions a meaningful conversation begins addressing the problem at hand.
Scientists across the board use reasoning, logic, and data to make judgements. It then
goes to show that the patient evaluation forms appeal to logos and ethos a great ton. The
treatment plan that is created is based on logic and reasoning which the physical therapists can
get from the patient evaluation forms. Looking at the first form attached below, one can see that
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the second part of the form evaluates the patient’s pain tolerance, the cause of pain, kind of pain,
and where the pain occurs. Gathering information from this section, one can see the appeals to
logos. The physical therapist is taking the information, and reasoning out a solution that will
work best for the patient in the long run. Any scientist or health care professional will base their
work on findings from a different study. Experiments and tests that are performed are just
expansions on studies that have already been done because they know that information is
credible. Everything that the physical therapists says about treatment for the patient appeals to
ethos because they base their workout regimens and treatment on medical studies that have been
done to show what works best. This appeals to ethos because it makes the treatment trustworthy
and good.
The patient evaluation form is designed for the physical therapist to gain as much
information as possible to come up with a diagnosis. Since the best way to gather information is
to ask questions, that is how the patient evaluation form is set up. As critiqued earlier, one can
see that the genre starts off talking about the patient’s basic health information. Later on the form
starts asking the patient about the injury that is being assessed. They try to get as much detail
about the injury as possible. This means that the writers of this genre must be detail-oriented in
order to ask all of these questions. The questions are short and straight to the point so that the
patient can answer the questions fairly easily. For example, on the second form below, it reads
“Changes in daily life activities” (Rocha, Magalhaes, and Lima). (Bras). This statement is
followed by a list of daily activities such as taking a bath, brushing teeth, etc. They are yes or no
questions so that the physical therapist can easily look at the paper, see the answer, and try and
give a diagnosis. The physical therapists want to get to the bottom of the problem for every
patient, but they have a lot of patients. That being said this also speaks to the format of the forms.
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If the forms contained essay questions for the patient to describe everything about themselves,
the physical therapists would not have time to complete a full diagnosis for everyone.
Just as the physical therapists ask questions in this genre, it encourages the patients to ask
questions too in order to better understand the full diagnosis. If the patients ask questions, the
physical therapist can answer them by appealing to logos and give the patient the logic behind
the treatment. Showing the patient, the evidence of studies where a particular kind of treatment
worked will also appeal to ethos. The value of logic and reason are revealed throughout this
genre. Also, the goals of the genre are revealed because the genre asks a lot of questions about
the patient that can add to the understanding of the diagnosis.
In any field of work there are different values, beliefs, and needs present. These
differences in the workplace create the need for multiple genres that can be used to communicate
with others. As a group of colleagues converse with each other about similar interests, values,
beliefs, and needs, a discourse community is born. From my analysis of patient evaluation forms,
I am now able to see just how important communication is in the health care field. I hope that
after reading this, one can see the importance of filling out these forms as a patient and asking
questions when needed, as it benefits them in the end.
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Works Cited
"General Forms." Sher Pelvic Health and Healing, LLC. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2016.
Rocha, Elizabeth, Silvia Magalhaes, and Vanessa Lima. "Repercussion of Physiotherapy
Intradialytic Protocol for Respiratory Muscle Function, Grip Strength and Quality of Life
of Patients with Chronic Renal Diseases." Repercussion of Physiotherapy Intradialytic
Protocol for Respiratory Muscle Function, Grip Strength and Quality of Life of Patients
with Chronic Renal Diseases. N.p., Dec. 2010. Web. 17 June 2016.
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(General Forms).
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(Rocha, Magalhaes, and Lima). (Bras).
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Works Cited
Bras, J. "Repercussion of Physiotherapy Intradialytic Protocol for Respiratory Muscle Function,
Grip Strength and Quality of Life of Patients with Chronic Renal
Diseases." Repercussion of Physiotherapy Intradialytic Protocol for Respiratory Muscle
Function, Grip Strength and Quality of Life of Patients with Chronic Renal Diseases.
N.p., Dec. 2010. Web. 20 May 2016.
"General Forms." Sher Pelvic Health and Healing, LLC. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2016.
Rocha, Elizabeth, Silvia Magalhaes, and Vanessa Lima. "Repercussion of Physiotherapy
Intradialytic Protocol for Respiratory Muscle Function, Grip Strength and Quality of Life
of Patients with Chronic Renal Diseases." Repercussion of Physiotherapy Intradialytic
Protocol for Respiratory Muscle Function, Grip Strength and Quality of Life of Patients
with Chronic Renal Diseases. N.p., Dec. 2010. Web. 17 June 2016.