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Serbia Perry
Professor Camargo
English 1101
5 November 2012
Individual Report
As a whole, I and my group are all a part of the same college at UNC Charlotte. We are
all working to get into the College of Human Health and Services (CHHS). In this college there
are many different majors that require and withhold different priorities. Most of my group
members are a part of the Kinesiology program, while I am a Public Health major. I have learned
a lot listening to my peers talk about their major and the skills required. I have learned what
types of writings can be done while being a Kinesiology major. Athletic reports and notes for
coaches are similar pieces that this profession is responsible for writing. While observing them, I
have learned that their writing consists of low and middle style types. Notes to coaches and
Athletic reports are not as high of a class as the type of writing that my major requires.
The Public Health community not only focuses on the diseases and illness that a society
as a whole starts to become immune to, they also concentrate on the cures for the diseases.
“Medical writing is an interdisciplinary field that applies knowledge of both rhetoric and science
to enhance reader understanding of medical phenomena.” (MacDonald) In this community public
health majors dress the part, from scrubs to dressing up and taking a larger role in the field.
Public Health deals with two major components, those being how medical science and
technology are developing. Mainly understanding the nature of diseases and the cause of diseases
helps make for smoother and simpler basis for preventing further disease and controlling current
ones. Since my major can take off into the medical field, writing and understanding is a main
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Part of what can be done. Starting off as a college freshman one doesn’t do much writing with
your intended major because one is in the ‘Pre-’ program. Looking ahead in education and if I
decide to stick with Public Health my writing styles will have to remain in a high style because I
will have medical files and reports on patients to write. Along with medical files, I could have
the opportunity to write out prescriptions. There are two types of writing in this field. One type
of writing is known as Medical Journalism. In Medical Journalism the main goals are to
represent the research in a specific and well known manner, to entertain by providing a different
insight, and to articulate the material. This type of writing is somewhat of a spinoff of Medical
writing, but is just as important because it connects the medical world with the public to help
them better understand medical ways.
“Medical writing is known as the different type of professional writing because it
involves the terminology, and knowledge from several different fields.” (Poon) It consists of
using styles from English, Biostatistics, and Pharmacy. Medical writing is a type of writing that
uses rhetoric and science to help the reader better understand the medical field and what it is
really about. “In Public-Health, the main purpose of the writing done is to make sure that the
reader or patient can understand the medical information in an effective way.” (Hanlon) Trying
to represent the information through writing is a major responsibility in the Public Health field
and you are typically taught to never make assumptions about the material.
As stated earlier, in the medical field you must be able to translate writings that either
you or someone else does. This is infamously known as one of the most challenging aspects of
medical journalism. Trying to capture what the writer is dealing with or what they are trying to
say to create a reader-friendly report is difficult. When you are writing you have to be sure to
address the specific and the highlights of the study, even though it isn’t completely necessary to
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have a reference for every step of your procedures. Reading and re-writing your journals and
entries carefully will help you to better evaluate the information.
In conclusion, I learned a lot about the Public Health community and I hope to learn more
about it as I continue with the education I’m receiving at UNC Charlotte. It was very interesting
to learn about the different types of writing done and focusing on my particular major with a
group of all Kinesiology majors. Overall, I plan to take all the knowledge and use it later in the
selected career path and also later on in the educational field.
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Works Cited
“Medical Writing.” Purdue OWL: Online Writing Lab. 1995. Retrieved November 04, 2012
from Purdue Owl: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/732/01/.
"Public Health." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. 1968. Retrieved November
04, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3045001016.html.