Running head: STRUCTURED WRITING STYLE IN HEALTHCARE

Creating a Structured Writing Style in Healthcare isn't an Easy Task

Lyric Randall
Antioch University

In any organization there are many different forms, genres, tones, and
distinct ways to create credibility in a writing environment. Writing is a great
way for someone to express himself or herself, as well as the program or
organization that they represent. An employee of the Regional Office of

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State, Adriana, was kind enough to allow her written artifacts to be shared
and then further analyzed. Adriana has a challenging job because in a days
work she tries to reach out to many different demographics of people to try
to further educate them. Her written work is an important key factor in
creating a beneficial program for women and creating a writing style that is
factual, but also easily understandable. To achieve logos, pathos, ethos, and
to create a structured style of writing when communicating through written
artifacts is a necessary style in the healthcare profession, but/especially the
Every Woman Counts Program has a challenge of effectively demonstrating
the value of their program to people who are not well versed in the domain
of healthcare.
For this project, the woman who was interviewed (Adriana) works with
the regional office of the states Every Woman Counts program in California,
which provides free breast and cervical cancer screening, diagnostic
services, and public education to low income, and uninsured women age
40+. This program reaches out to women through networking in local
communities and public clinics, including Planned Parenthood and Public
Health Clinics. Mammograms and other diagnostic imaging are provided at
all imaging centers that accept Medi-Cal. The Every Woman Counts program
is open to any individuals regardless of their residency status. This program
also serves women with high deductibles/co-payments at or below 200% of
the federal poverty level, who may need help obtaining a diagnostic service
that is not covered by their regular insurance. This program also has a short

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educational class that is low literacy and makes it easier to understand

information about breast and cervical cancer, as well as the overall concepts
of the program. The Department of Health Care Services program also offers
basic information about the Affordable Care Act and referrals to Covered
California. This program has bilingual, bicultural staff who speaks English,
Spanish, and Mixtec. By having a diverse staff it allows for all women with
different cultural background to seek the help that they need and to get
more information. Yet another wonderful service that this program provides
is that they regularly attend community events, such as health fairs and food
pantries. They go out into the community so they can handout different
brochures, flyers, information packets, and other informative documents that
they want women to have. When creating such factual documents the
employees should ask themselves two questions: would I say this to my
audience face to face? And secondly, am I comfortable with this message
becoming a permanent part of the companys communication history (Graff
& Birkenstein). By the author taking time to analyze their own writing they
are creating a document that has been truly well thought out. All of the
artifacts that the program hands out are factual, linear, and easily
understandable.
When first analyzing the artifacts the genera of the work should be
noted. From what was observed the genera of these documents and web
pages were primarily structured with pathos, ethos, and logic as well as
being educational, friendly, and creating a sense of community. The artifacts

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that were received consisted of their web page, as well as informative

handouts, and flyers that Adrianas program gives to people. The documents
that were reviewed were all educational and visually were extremely linear.
There is a plethora of different facts embedded in the text about breast and
cervical cancer. All of the facts discuss how to prevent, how to treat, and how
to qualify through the Every Woman Counts program. The flyers display the
educational information in a very clear and concise way that allows for the
reader to easily comprehend the information that is displayed. Due to the
friendly style that these artifacts exhibit, they will draw the attention of the
target audience and create a sense of support, as well as demonstrate the
willingness and want to help women. These documents show the reader that
the program is friendly and there to assist and help. Being friendly to an
audience is important when trying to reach out to a specific group. On the
other hand, if the flyers were filled with boring and dry text, it is probable
that not as many people would choose to take the time to read them,
therefore dismissing what the program has to offer. The flyers easily
communicate with the target audience. For example, the documents present
that the program is friendly by displaying numerous pictures of happy
women, naturally smiling in a group of other women; in turn symbolizing the
support of each other.
When a woman wants, and is choosing to take action to become
educated on a subject that they are unfamiliar with, it is important for them
to feel like they are being supported and part of a family, or a part of a

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specific group that is welcoming to them, regardless of their background. As

a result from the friendly vibe that the documents project, the Every Woman
Counts program is able to create a sense of community, as well as
demonstrating to the community of a diverse group of women that they are
not alone, but rather that they have a community that can and wants to
support them.
Next lets address the writing style and appeal of the documents:
ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos is the most predominant style of writing in all
of the written artifacts that were analyzed. Ethos is the credibility that a
speaker or writer brings to the subject that he or she is communicating
about (p, 45 Understanding Rhetoric). The Every Woman Counts program
chose to write their documents in a way that convinces the reader of the
credibility and success of the program. Creating credible documents is
important for the program, because once again, they are trying to make
themselves trustworthy so that uneducated women can become more
informed. They want to persuade the reader that the program is credible and
capable of helping the the target group of women age 40+. Supporting ethos
in the writing style of the Every Woman Counts program is pathos. Pathos is
a way of creating a way to convince an audience of an argument by creating
an emotional response, pathos surrounds us, particularly in visual
arguments such as advertisements (p, 45 Understanding Rhetoric). This is
accomplished in Adrianas writing artifacts by sharing personal stories as well
as friendly pictures. Brief stories are shared about people who havent taken

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advantage of the program or stayed up to date on their physical testing, and

tell a story about how their life has changed negatively since their decision
to not safe by taking advantage of the Every Woman Counts program. The
bottom line is they caught the cancer early, but the complications continued
to impact my life and my family (brochure). By quickly summarizing
someones hardships, the writing has created a way that effectively
persuades the reading audience to look further into the program so that a
story like this wont happen to them. Whether it be a story that recounts
someone's negative experience or positive experience, both can produce the
same effect of motivating more women to look deeper into the program in
hopes that they can right a wrong or continue to live a healthy and more
informed life.
The program is allowing the readers to create reasons within
themselves by acknowledging a hardship in someones life. Logos is a writing
style that displays reason within the reader by convincing the audience of an
argument through creating a factual document. All of the flyers and
handouts for the Every Woman Counts program also uses logos, which is a
writing style that appeals to reason, to the forcefulness of the well-thought
out and well-structured position (p, 45 Understanding Rhetoric). This writing
style is slightly harder to depict but it is still there: cancer is a disease in
which cells in the body grow out of control. When cancer starts in the breast
it is called breast cancer. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in
California women. This statement is very clear and concise, allowing for the

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audience to be persuaded by reason and logic. Applying Logos into their

program gives their information and overall message a strong backbone,
assuring their audience that this company prioritizes facts over theory when
it counts. Using these three forms of writing is essential in a healthcare
profession, because without having a document that is convincing, credible,
persuades the audience, generates emotion, and demonstrates the pure
logic behind the concepts of the document, than the Every Woman Counts
program would not be credible and thrive like it currently does. By
incorporating these three different writing techniques, the writer is able to
impart their knowledge to a wide range of women in a more defined and
clear way, while still being able to define their message for readers without
issue.
The tone of writing in a healthcare profession, from what has been
studied, hasnt had very much of a dramatic variation. In terms of
healthcare, they have a wide ranged audience. They achieve reaching out to
this wide range of people through rhetorical appeal (ethos, pathos, logos)
and by compiling an extensive amount of research. Adriana was asked,
Where do you get the information to support the claims on your brochures
and websites? Her reply was, we get our information from a credible
source. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control), State of California Every
Woman Counts Program, and professional peer reviewed studies. So as you
can see, an extensive amount of research has to be done in order for the
Every Woman Counts Program to be credible. They show their credibility

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throughout their forms by creating very structured documents. The structure

is apparent due to the bullet points, boxes that surround the text, and the
linear fashion of the forms. When looking at the handouts, readers can see
that the document are laid out in categories (in boxes) so that the reader can
easily compartmentalize the data and better understand the text. Because
the text is not too wordy, the Every Woman Counts Programs is able to tackle
the challenge of educating women who are not educated. Being able to tailor
a message to a specific audience, ultimately, plays a part in effective
communication.
It is challenging to demonstrate the values of the Every Woman Counts
program to women who are not well versed in the domain of healthcare, this
program has done an outstanding job making their work more accessible and
credible. An example of this is when the program chooses to cite credible
sources within their documents. They reference government documents such
as Covered California and the Affordable Care Act. By using these credible
documents the program is elevating their validity. An additional way for the
Every Woman Counts program to demonstrate validity is through using buzz
words. Different buzzwords include FREE, 100% affordable, and even the
name of the program Every Woman Counts. These buzzwords do an
admirable job gathering the attention of women who are not well versed in
the domain of healthcare, by allowing them to feel like they have a chance to
become more educated and better versed in the subject matter. These
buzzwords also help create a purpose for the document and to hook the

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reader. By saying words like: free and 100% curable, the program is making
the reader want to learn more about the program. In other words, the
documents use these buzzwords on the surface to lure the reader into
looking further into the subject, then the bulk of the documents then use
citations, hard facts and other credible sources to remind the audience that
what they are reading is legitimate. Free screenings and prevention of
diseases may be interesting enough terms to grab the readers attention, but
hard facts and credibility are what keep them interested enough to pursue
joining the program.
It is apparent that the Every Woman Counts program is able to achieve
logos, pathos, ethos, and a structured style of writing when communicating
that it is an effective and necessary style in the healthcare profession. This
program has successfully reached out to countless different demographics of
women. According to Adriana this program is always improving and striving
to reach the needs of women in the community, and has done an incredible
job at achieving this task. Even though this program has a challenging job
demonstrating the value of the program to people who are not well versed in
the terminology and perhaps the entire realm of healthcare, it is apparent
that the program has attained a high ranking in their effectiveness. Overall,
the Every Woman Counts program is a well established program that
effectively uses logos, pathos, and ethos to create a value in the program
that they offer, allowing them to effectively communicate to women who
may not be well educated or up to date in the healthcare community.

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Works Cited: Documents Examined and Class Readings

Californias Every Woman Counts Program.
County of Santa Barbara: Tri-Counties Cancer and Detection Partnership
(CDP) Every

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Graff, G., & Birkenstein, C. (2010). So What? Who Cares? In They Say / I Say:
The moves that matter in academic writing (2nd ed., P. 97). New York: W.W.
Norton.
Everything's an Argument
HPV - Diseases and the Vaccines That Prevent Them.
Protect Yourself from Breast Cancer: Know the Facts.
What Every Woman Counts Program Recipients Need to Know About the
Affordable Care Act.
Why Protect Rhetoric - Issue 1
Woman Counts Web Page.