Lydia Smith Language Analysis

A writer is constantly being impacted by communication within various rhetorical situations. Communication helps shape a writer’s language and style in their writing process. Cynthia Smith, a retired RN and case manager supervisor was greatly impacted by authors such as Charles Dickens, Shakespeare, and the collective authors of the Bible. They helped shape her ideas and her construction of writing. Her transition from Jamaica to America and her position in the medical field, shaped how important language and communication was in her essays and writing today. Cynthia Smith went to school in Jamaica prior to moving to America in the early 1970’s. She attended school in Jamaica from elementary to high school, than went on to study nursing at …show more content…
For three years she attended the University of West Indies which at the time was the only University that offered nursing in Jamaica. Many students all across Jamaica and neighboring islands would enroll in this school to get there nursing licenses. At this time, the University offered free schooling to the students who attended. In return for the free schooling, students were required to work various shifts in multiple units at the hospital. As they were learning nursing they were also working in the areas they were studying. As a nurse in Jamaica, she completed tasks that were very similar to how nurses operate in America. Nurses have to accurately record patient’s symptoms and medications in order to ensure that the doctor understands the information given. In Cynthia’s time as a nurse, America’s medical terminology was much broader than Jamaica’s. She had to adapt to numerous new terms of medical terminology that was being introduced as a nurse in America. In addition to the new terminology, she had to begin recognizing how important it is to be aware of body language as a nurse. Understanding body language is very important when interacting in the medical field. Noticing a patient’s signs and symptoms can be used to prevent future fatal attacks or conditions that they might be …show more content…
Through proper communication in a medical field, a doctor can accurately prescribe medication and give a correct diagnosis from a patient’s symptoms. Just as communication is important in the medical field it is equally important in writing. In rhetorical situations, knowledge and understanding of meanings are constructed in response and relation to a text. The rhetoric communicates their ideas within their texts and the audience receives it and responds to it by offering feedback that can be present as new information. In Cynthia’s case she was the rhetoric, the patient’s charts was the text, and the doctor was the audience. By the nurse providing accurate documentation the doctor will be able to properly diagnose the illness and give new information on the symptoms the patient may be experiencing. Likewise, it is very important for the nurse and the doctor to understand the importance of code-switching, which is changing language or tone for different audiences. A doctor would tell a patient that they have contracted HIV, rather than saying they have Human Immunodeficiency Virus. A patient would most likely not understand this type of terminology so the doctor would have to provide a simpler term. Language is an essential component when it comes to rhetorical situations. In writing it is important to understand who the audience is so you can accurately convey meaning from your writing in a language