Technical Communication Quarterly Apr 1997

In Search of Patient Agency in the Rhetoric of Diabetes Care

Mary Specker Stone

Abstract

Medical rhetoric has long been characterized by a focus on disease and on the physician as healer. Now, in the era of managed health care, patients are increasingly being viewed as agents in the management of their own chronic diseases. This article examines the concept of patient agency from a rhetorical perspective in lay and professional medical discourse relating to diabetes care. Kenneth Burke's dramatistic pentad is used as a tool to help uncover and analyze sites where values appear ambiguous. This study shows that patient agency is closely related to patient compliance in the language of biomedicine. The terms "compliance" and "adherence" operate as terrninistic screens in professional discourse and serve to limit discussion of patient agency. In managed health care, tension is evident between the trend toward greater patient agency and the constraints of biomedical text conventions concerning doctor and patient roles.

Journal
Technical Communication Quarterly
Published
1997-04-01
DOI
10.1207/s15427625tcq0602_5
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism discourse analysis professional writing
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (7)

  1. Defossez (2020)
    No Magic Pills: A Burkean View on the Ambiguity of Mild Depression
    Rhetoric Review
  2. Opel (2018)
    Challenging the Rhetorical Conception of Health Literacy: Aging, Interdependenc…
    Literacy in Composition Studies
  3. Hannah et al. (2018)
    Mapping the Terrain: Examining the Conditions for Alignment Between the Rhetori…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  4. Swacha (2017)
    Older Adults as Rhetorical Agents: A Rhetorical Critique of Metaphors for Aging…
    Rhetoric Review
  5. Breuch et al. (2016)
    Toward Audience Involvement: Extending Audiences of Written Physician Notes in …
    Written Communication
Show all 7 →
  1. Faber (2002)
    Professional Identities: What Is Professional about Professional Communication?
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Dombrowski (2000)
    Ethics and Technical Communication: The Past Quarter Century
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication

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CrossRef global citation count: 11 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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