Bariatrics As A Discourse Community Analysis

Ashley Pirone

English Writing 3306

Professor Victoria Papa

September 25, 2015

Unit 1

APA

Bariatrics as a Discourse Community

Bariatrics is the branch of medicine that focuses on the causes, prevention, and treatment of obesity. Bariatric surgery is a specific discourse community connecting individuals through mutual interests, shared knowledge, and expertise of treating obese populations. The field of bariatrics is a discourse community with several purposes. It encourages innovative surgical and nonsurgical solutions in obesity care. It formulates hypotheses and develops and conducts experimental designs to test the hypotheses’ reliability and validity. Furthermore, it aims to stimulate discussion about its findings.
Scientists,

researchers, medical professionals, and other experts in the field of Bariatrics submit their findings and must go through professional gatekeeping measures like peer-review before their work can be published. Once their findings are published, they can be accessed in peer-reviewed journals, magazines, articles, and scientific databases. One example of a publication in the field of Bariatrics is, The Journal of Obesity and Bariatrics, which is an online international journal, published by the Avens Publishing Group, or APG for short. This journal was published on August. 9 2013, and is composed of many scientific and scholarly research articles about obesity treatment. The Avens Publishing Group reviews and publishes new research articles every 60 days on average. Topics in the Journal of Obesity and Bariatrics include: obesity prevention, metabolic disorders and syndromes, bariatric surgery, novel treatments, and case reports (cite). The articles within the collection are organized beginning with the most recent published article, so that readers are up to date with the latest trends, studies, discoveries, and controversy in the Bariatrics’ field. Each research article in the journal contributes to the field of Bariatrics at-large by gathering the diverse voices in the field. Scientists, doctors, researchers, and experts in the field offer new perspectives for the treatment of obesity, and encourage other professionals and experts to evaluate the effectiveness of various treatment options using a medical, clinical, genetical, and nutritional approach (cite). Within the Journal of Obesity and Bariatrics several rhetorical devices are used to reflect the values of this discourse community, which include: logos as statistical data; style, the medical jargon and scientific format; informative voices. The values of this discourse community include: developing innovation solutions to determine the most viable approaches for obesity treatment, and encouraging effective communication about treatment options between health care members and patients in the field of bariatrics.
The Journal of Obesity and Bariatrics is composed of articles written by scientists, doctors, and other specialists in the field of bariatrics and surgery (i.e. Sigrid Bairdain - Department of Pediatric Surgery, Boston Children’s Hospital). Within the journal, there is one collection titled, Volume 2, Issue 1, and there are six individual articles that make up the collection. At the beginning of each article, there is a section at the top right that lists the author’s credentials. This serves to establish credibility and validity with the audience because the author’s are presenting themselves as authorities on the topic with sufficient experience, training, and research in the field. To gain further credibility with the audience, Agaba (2015) acknowledges the existing solutions for obesity treatment presented by other experts in the field and then proposes their own solution (p. #1). He points out at the beginning of the article, that Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (lap-band surgery) is considered effective in some health care institutions because it has been proven to be safe (p. #1). Agaba’s contribution to the conversation is that gastric bypass should be used as a viable option for obesity in adolescents because this type of surgery has been deemed the most effective for optimal weight loss (p. #1). This rhetorical move establishes credibility by presenting research as part of a collaborative effort. This is important and speaks to the value of the discourse community because the author acknowledged an opposing perspective before making a strong case about his own opinion. This is particularly valued in the medical field because it shows that individuals in the field value the research that others are conducting. It also encourages others to build on new ideas for obesity treatment, which can allow for advancements in the field. The authors credibility in these articles exhibit values of this discourse community. The language and style of these articles also contribute to the values of the field of bariatrics.
In the Journal of Obesity and Bariatrics, the language and style of the articles in the journal are presented in a general scientific format and rely on medical jargon to represent the values of this discourse community.

In general, a scientific format is divided into sections that consists of: introduction, heading, subheadings, methods, results, discussion, acknowledgments, future direction, and a citations page. In particular, Smith’s “Bariatric Surgery for the Treatment of Morbid Obesity” (year) has subheadings to help the reader navigate and reference the material. White space creates visual breaks in the text to help the audience process the information and prevents them from losing their place in the text. These aspects of the scientific method speak to the value of the discourse community because they show that people in this field appreciate and expect medical information to be presented in a clear-cut, direct, and precise manner. In addition, the use of medical jargon shows that the collections audience is very exclusive to those who have a scientific background. One of the articles titled, “The Impacts of Childhood and Adolescent Obesity on Quality of Life,” uses medical terminology such as OSA, which stands for Obstructive Sleep Apnea, SCFE, which is Slipped Capital Femoral Ephysis, or GERD, which stands for Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (p. #2). Without having a science background, the language used in articles like the one mentioned above would be hard to

understand. The use of a scientific format and medical jargon in this article show that the discourse community performs a gatekeeping function, marking inclusion versus exclusion. Professional and experts in the field maintain this discourse community by writing about the research they conduct, which helps other people learn about how the field of Bariatrics has evolved.
Another value of this discourse community is the use of authoritative evidence.

The six articles that appear in this issue of Journal of Obesity and Bariatrics uphold that value by using visual aids such as tables and statistical figures. For example, author Yishai Levy (2015) argues that bariatric surgery is a potential cure for Type II Diabetes (pg. 1). First, Levy supports this claim by using three tables of data, which she uses to demonstrate the effectiveness of bariatric surgery on aspects of the body like glucose homeostasis, blood tests, and inflammatory markers, (p. #3). She also uses statistical figures such as, “50% improvement in liver enzymes,” and “46% change in excess weight loss” and using such data, she adds more authority to her claim through the power of numbers (p. #3). The use of tables can help the audience better understand the results of the study and allows the author to present the results of her findings in a clear and concise manner. One thing to consider is that replication is important in natural sciences such as Bariatrics, and by providing numbers, the author makes it important to replicate her findings to determine the reliability and validity of her

results.
One last