Cultural Analysis of "Stimulating Controversy"

In this post I will analyze the cultural messages of an opinion on electrotherapy in physical therapy.

84user. "The Blue Marble" 10-22-2011. Public Domain.

I have chosen a text on the controversy of using electrotherapy for treatment in physical therapy.

Cultural Keywords
Treatment, helping, stimulation

Thesis
Electrotherapy can be a powerful tool in helping patients regain mobility.

Freewrite
The use of electrical stimulation in physical therapy has been questioned recently due to a few main setbacks. Oddly, some of these setbacks are unrelated to the effectiveness of the treatment itself.

The cultural keywords found in this text are used to explain that electrical stimulation is overall very effective when used correctly. These words are geared towards showing the audience that the treatment is successful. The thesis also states this same idea. The audience is more inclined to support this argument due to the key words because they show that these technique itself works very well but the problems lie in the outside factors such as cost, insurance, and confidence in performing the treatment.

Evaluation of Rhetorical Situations

In this post I will evaluate acts of public speech on a controversy in my discipline.

Public Domain Pictures. "Unknown" September 24 2013. CC0 Public Domain.

1. "Stimulating Controversy" on Electrotherapy in Physical Therapy

• The author of this piece is Gad Alon. He has a PhD and is a Physical Therapist. The author doesn't introduce himself but it is mentioned at the beginning and end of the piece. If the author were someone with less credibility, the piece would be less informative and lack the variety of information. The authors values are shown a little bit throughout the text. It's obvious that he is concerned with the results of the studies being done on electrotherapy. At the same time, it's clear he tries to mask his opinion and just give the information that is currently known.
• The primary audience is other physical therapists looking for more on the controversy or patients looking for information on why the treatment has been put to question. The text assumes that the audience values proper and effective treatment through physical therapy whether that may be through the use of e-stim or not. The audience values the most effective and least harmful treatments.
• This piece was published in April 1, 2001. This medium is an informative article on a medical search engine. This article is related to all other physical therapy controversies and different types of treatments. It is unknown where the author published this text. Other texts that are similar to this one are posted on a link at the bottom that includes articles of or relating to physical therapy and different types of treatments.

2. "Vitamin D: How much is enough?" 

• The author is Rajendrani Mukhopadhyay. There is no evidence that he has any professional knowledge on the subject but he quotes reputable sources throughout the text. It's possible that if the author himself were more credible the piece would contain information of better quality. From the introduction, it's obvious that the author is very in favor of using vitamin D supplements as a treatment. The rest of the information given throughout the text shows that the author is backing up his opinion with factual information.
• The primary audience is people concerned with the amount of vitamin D they're consuming or anyone looking for information on the controversy. The genre of the text is similar to that of a QRG which makes it a little more official. This makes the audience a bit more broad. 
• This text was published in June/July of 2014. The context fits that of a quick reference ride but it is more formal and more in depth than original QRGs. Other texts similar to this one can be found on the website where it was posted.  

3. "Case study report: postural restoration: an effective physical therapy approach to patient treatment"

• The author is a physical therapist name Holly Spence. Due to the fact that this piece is a case study from a patient the information is very reliable. The author provides a table of the patients history and progress which shows evidence of the treatment working. From the type of language used thtoughout the text, it's very obvious the author has a lot of information on the subject. 
• The primary audience of this text is mentioned at the beginning. The piece is designed to inform other physical therapists or professionals in the field of new and effective treatments. The language used makes it obvious that the reader should have some knowledge on the subject of the treatment or of other treatments. 
• The piece was published in April of 2008. This makes the information pretty recent in terms of medical treatments. The piece was a case study of a patient where the use of postural restoration was successful. Other texts similar to this are difficult to find but they can be found on medical journals. 

Reflection

I reviewed Jayni's post and Kelly's post. The formats of both of their posts were different from mine which only gave me more ideas on how to construct blog posts in the future. Jayni set hers up as a table and Kelly used short sentences with titles to evaluate hers. I admired both techniques. After seeing my peers posts I can confidently say that my post reflects the amount of time I spent analyzing my sources. My peers did give me ideas on how to effectively format my blog posts. Looking back I should have used titles separating my different paragraphs rather than bullet points. 

Developing a Research Question

In this post I will discuss research questions in one area of controversy in Physiology.

Horia Varlan. "Question Mark Made of Puzzle Pieces" 10/03/2008. Creative Commons Corporation.

Currently in physiology, professionals are discussing the use of certain types of therapy to create maximum results. One technique in particular include electrotherapy. This field interests me because I have personal experience with electrotherapy as I went through a process of multiple weeks receiving the treatment. I have come up with a few questions regarding this topic. 

1. Why have the results of using electrotherapy to treat joint problems in the elderly made the technique as a whole questionable?

I'm interested in this because as I watch my grandparents grow older, these types of treatments become techniques we start to consider. I'm curious of why electrotherapy is being questioned when it has shown to be useful in many situations. 

2. How does electrotherapy actually affect the body and how does it aid the process of healing?

This interests me because as I mentioned before I have actually had electrotherapy performed on me over several weeks. I was always curious what it was actually doing to me and how it was helping treatment of my injury. In my case, it didn't do much but I have witnessed cases where it has.

3. Why are therapists resistant to use electrotherapy in patients they see potential for it to work?

This is interesting to me because therapists explore many other techniques to heal a patient when electrotherapy is a valid treatment.

4. Why won't insurance companies cover electrotherapy for patients but they will cover a variety of other treatments?

I, along with many others, have had issues with insurance companies not covering electrotherapy in physical therapy. It's a very frustrating and costly experience. 

Final Draft of Project 1

To view my final draft of my QRG click here!!

Reflection on Project 1

In this post I will discuss my experience composing my QRG for project 1.

Geralt. "Unknown" September 23 2014. CC0 Public Domain

• What challenges did you face during the Quick Reference Guide project and how did you deal with them?
• I had problems finding solid information on the fad diet aspect of the controversy. This was difficult simply because there is very limited information on the subject but it ended up making my QRG go in a different direction than I had originally planned.

• What successes did you experience on the project and how did they happen?
• I was able to successfully use all of the conventions of a QRG and use white space pretty well. I think the order of my information fit the style well because I gave an introduction  of the content and then explained from there, going into greater detail as the project went on.

• What kinds of arguments, rhetorical strategies, design choices and writing practices did you find the most effective for your project? Why?
• I found the use of images, horizontal lines, and subheadings the most effective when constructing design. I felt that the images gave evidence on the content and the horizontal lines separated different topics as well as made it easier to scan. I found that trying to avoid an argument but use sympathy at the end gives the readers incentive to get involved in the topic and form their own opinion. I also used a bit of foreshadowing to give the readers an idea of what the next paragraph of text will be about. 

• What kinds of arguments, rhetorical strategies, design choices and writing practices did you find were not effective for your project? Why?
• I found that obviously stating my personal view of the topic unhelpful because that is not what the purpose of a QRG is. For design, I avoided the use of normal paragraph style because the genre does not require that and I did not want my QRG to appear like an essay. 

• How was the writing process for this project similar to other school writing experiences you’ve had in the past?
• It was similar to articles I've had to write and short informative projects. All of these genres require research and stress visual aids to provide information.

• How was the writing process for this project different from other school writing experiences you’ve had in the past?
• It was different because I was able to completely build the project on my own without a lot of guidance. In the past I would have a cookie cutter rubric but I was able to branch out on my own a lot for this project.

• Would any of the skills you practiced for this project be useful in your other coursework? Why or why not?
• Yes, it would even help me in other subjects. Being able to choose a topic on my own and construct my own piece without a ton of guidance is a really useful skill I'll use a lot in the future. 

Reflection

I reviewed Morgan's post of her opinion on project 1. For the most part, we had pretty similar answers. I found myself agreeing with a lot of the points she mentioned. We both agree that using hyperlinks as sources was a much better choice than using a works cited because then our readers can engage in some research of their own. We both enjoyed the more informal writing style as well. Overall we both feel good about finally having project 1 completed and enjoyed the process of creating it. 

Clarity, Part 2

In this post I will go into further discussion of Rules For Writers sections.

Jenny Dowing. "Unknown" June 21 2008.

Active Verbs

Active verbs put more emphasis on the subject it's paired with. They have more of an effect than passive verbs because passive verbs don't show an action that the subject receives. The book advised to always use active verbs and to avoid using passive unless necessary. This is due to the fact that active verbs give a clearer message and have a stronger impact. 

Add Needed Words

The book gave several examples of when to add needed words. One reason in particular that I felt will help my writing personally is adding words to make comparisons logical and complete. I learned that in comparing objects that are different from each other it's a good idea to add words to clarify the objects to make them easier to compare. For example adding "than those of" is better than just saying "than".

Untangle Mixed Constructions

Untangling mixed contractions means fixing parts of sentences that don't make sense. This could be sentences that are too wordy or the message is a bit off. Fixing a sentence grammatically could be as simple as adding punctuation and keeping the words the same. Fixing a sentence due to the message could be adding words, taking away words, or simply switching up the order to make the sentence more effective.

Find The Exact Words

This lesson talked about finding the right words to get the message across exactly as it's intended. A tip that this part included was to avoid looking up synonyms for words that sound fancy and instead look for words that really represent what you're trying to say. By doing this the message will get across effectively instead of being wordy and confusing. This also helps give the message the correct tone and doesn't over exaggerate anything.

Revision
Revising my draft after reading the topics from Rules for Writers gave me a lot more tools to improve my draft. I was able to find a spot where I needed to add punctuation to untangle a mixed construction. In this sentence, "Celiacs disease is passed down genetically; it occurs when the small intestine cannot properly break down gluten proteins." I added a semicolon because without it the sentence's meaning was unclear. I used the exact words rule to revise a sentence in the beginning of my draft. In this sentence, "It is obvious that it’s necessary for people suffering from Celiacs disease and gluten sensitivity" I replaced the word "crucial" with the word "necessary". By doing this it gives the sentence the correct tone and avoids any confusion or misleading.

Identifying Basic Grammar Patterns

In this post I will be analyzing the longest paragraph of my current draft of my QRG.

Stinging Eyes. "Lost for Words." June 12, 2007. Creative Commons Corporation.

To view my longest paragraph, click here.

Picking apart my longest paragraph made me realize I should use some more variety in my writing. A few times I found myself adding in the necessary pieces of grammar to complete my blog post. Reading my revised paragraph and seeing how much more interesting it was to read with the variety of grammar makes me want to revise my QRG more thoroughly.