David Uto

UWRT 1101
Professor Agosta

Observation and Interview of Discourse Community

Guiding questions
1. How does the this community reach their objective?,
2. Does their language differ from common english?
3. Will I be able to understand the procedures of their community?

Description
Grayson and I originally met up with my Bio 2130 teacher assistant Makenzie Postma. Makenzie
is a member of the American Medical Student Association, the discourse community we are
observing. We met outside of the Student Union room 340G, where their bi-weekly meetings
take place. The time was 5:50PM as their meeting began at 6:00PM. We followed Makenzie into
the room. Whenever she entered people cheerfully greeted her. She shook hands as a greeting,
which implied to me that this was indeed a very professional community where this is the norm.
It was obvious she was well known within the community, as there weren't many groups of
people who didnt greet her. We made our way towards the front and she greeted the executive
board at the front of the room. We met Jane the secretary, Daniel the treasurer and Brian the
president. I forgot the name of the other two executive members. They were dressed in business
casual attire. Makenzie introduced Brian specifically to Grayson because I told her that he
needed to interview someone so they met and they exchanged email information. We eventually
sat down in the second row of chairs. There were around 50 or so chairs set up in rows of 10.
People kept coming in as we sat down but the vast majority of them were already there, again
implying this was a very organized professional community. I highly doubt there were assigned
seats but I think Makenzie sitting in the second row had some significance. Maybe that she was
semi important within the community so she needed to be towards the front? She is a junior so I
assume she has some form of responsibility within the group even if she isn't on the executive
board. The side chatter in the group died down when Brian began the meeting right on time.
There was a projector set up displaying a PowerPoint presentation. The first slide stated the name
of the organization. Brian began by being cordial to everyone and saying "I hope everyone had a
great weekend". He continued on and got to an important moment where he stated, "We know
summer is right around the corner and many of us are either taking summer courses or are
looking for internships. We have gathered internship opportunities available to us around the area
and throughout the southeastern region". You could tell he had gotten down to business because
his tone was now more serious than his introduction. He went proceeded through the slides
where he presented the internships and the details about them. The first slide was labeled
internship opportunities. The next slide showed the first one. This was a program offered by the
local University City Carolinas Medical Center hospital. The title was Carolinas HealthCare
System Summer Scholars Program. He said it was a very competitive program where only 25
applicants were accepted. The overall gpa required is 3.5 and a science gpa of 3.6. The next slide
was about the UNC Chapel Hill Medical Education Development (MED) Program. He stated
that it ran from May 29th through July 28th. Also a very competitive program. The next slide
was labeled WNC HEART Summer Primary Care Internship Program. This one lasted 8 weeks
and applications were due by April 14th. This one took place in the western counties of North
Carolina. It became clear to me that the primary goal of this community, which is preparing
students for medical school, is present in every single aspect of the meeting since they want the
students to take advantage of the opportunities offered to them. Brian then continued on to a very
important slide. The reason why I know it was important is because he said so himself. He stated,
"As we all know we have an event coming up that we have been working on for quite some
time. This event was a presentation being hosted by the American Medical Student Association.
They were going to have a speaker from the Edward Via College of Osteopathic medicine come
in and speak on the behalf of their college and their admission requirements. Brian stated that it
was very important that they invited every potential pre med student. This event was to take
place on April 5th at 5:00PM in Woodward 120. This let me as an observer know they always
had the thought of acquiring new members present in their minds. He then went on to talk about
a Health Graduate Programs Pop-Up being hosted by the school. This was on the 3rd floor of the
student union from 10am to 2pm. The next slide was also important. He mentioned the MCAT
practice test being offered by the school for free. He stated it was a great opportunity and that it
should be taken advantage of. This was happening on the 8th of April from 9:00am to 4:30pm.
He gave the link where to register. The treasurer, Daniel, then proceed to state that the dues for
next year had to go up to $25. I think they had voted on this in a previous meeting but he was
just making the formal statement of it because no one seemed surprised. The meeting then ended
at 6:40PM. We walked out with Makenzie as some members stayed behind to talk to each other.
We thanked her for allowing us to tag along with her and I told her she was officially the best TA
ever for helping me with a class that she wasn't even the TA for.

Analysis
Overall this community proved true to its overall goal. Their overall goal is ensure their members
are prepared for medical school. With this in mind, every single aspect of the meeting I attended
had this goal in mind. I noticed everything ranging from the transition of mingling within
members, to the structure of the slides was very fluid and with no kinks. I expected this form of
organization within this community because science students are taught to think in very
organized manners so everyone within this community follows this form of thought. In my
description I mentioned important moments. I believe those moments were important due to
increased emphasis both in speech and in the slides by being highlighted. This community does
have their own lexis but I did not observe any in the slides or speech. This is due to the fact that
the vast majority of this communitys lexis come from medical terminology. The purpose of this
group is not to discuss medical terminology but instead to set up the events where they can
discuss them with already established members of the medical community. I believe this group is
working every well and is doing everything necessary to reach their end goal of making it into
medical school.

Interview of Makenzie Postma, a member of the American Medical Student Association

1. Why did you join?
a. I joined after searching for medical school interest groups within
the schools organization database. At SOAR they group you by major so I also
heard about it from my freshman class peers.
2. What factors led you to become a bio major?
a. My father was a biology major and he went onto medical school at
West Virginia University. I always observed his work when he would come home
and examine the x rays as he was an interventional radiologist so I was fascinated
by this and I want to follow in his footsteps.
3. Did you have a mentor or someone to guide you into this community? How did
they help you?
a. As I mentioned my father led me to the biology community in
general. However my classmates led me to this association specifically in order to
maximize my medical opportunities.
4. What are your long term goals within the community?
a. Within the community I would say make sure I can in some way
help as many members get into medical school by offering the knowledge I
already have.
5. Are your goals aligned with the communitys overall goal?
a. I would say so as the primary focus of this association is to prepare
students for the medical field.
6. How does your community communicate?
a. For informal messages and normal communication between
members we use GroupMe. This is when we just want to talk amongst ourselves
casually or if we have a side project within the community we will make a group
with the people directly involved. For formal news and communication we use the
school email.
7. How do your experts within the community pass down information to the
novices?
a. Well I can speak specifically for the biology community. Since the
bio major community is very tight knit community we usually have at least one
class with incoming freshman. This allows us to have a connection with the
freshmen and we then pass down the knowledge we have acquired within the
group down to them and the steps they need to take in order to progress in
achieving their goal.
8. (I defined Lexis for her) Do you have any lexis in your community?
a. By that definition we have a great number of lexis in our
community. The medical community is one that requires a vast array of
 terminology in order to accurately describe individual processes or body parts. It
would be impossible to classify everything by using common English therefore
we use a lot of the original latin names used in the past to describe body parts.
9. Can you differentiate between the experts and the novices in your community?
a. You can. Our elder members tend to speak more in our meetings
due to the fact that they are usually heading an event put on by us or they have
been around longer so they are the ones aware of an internship opportunity that
has been created where they are already interning. Over time our younger
members start talking more as they gain knowledge and interact with the older
members.

Problem Posing Questions

1. What happens if a member of your organization isnt on the right track to get into
medical school?
2. I noticed not many members spoke. How do members voice their opinions?
3. Do members have to voice their opinion or is this a community for the sole
purpose of information acquisition?