[Last Name] 1

Rachel Fincher

Professor Mooney

ENC 1102

9/29/2019

An Inquiry into UCF Health Services Rhetoric Online

The conception of rhetoric is constantly evolving due to advancements in communication

and platforms we use to connect. Doug Downs, an authority figure in the field of writing and

rhetoric has established that for something to be rhetorical, it must be situated, motivated, material,

and able to make knowledge for others. With this definition of rhetoric, one can see how rhetoric

influences most interactions in all communities. Rhetoric within different communities is dynamic

to reflect new knowledge made within the community. In major communities such as health

services with constant substantial knowledge being made, rhetorical developments are important

to track so that community ideals remain relevant and useful. Health services is a major community

that encompasses maintenance of health care for numerous populations, and often relies on

statistics and feedback to track trends and effectiveness. Specialist Swatejia Nimkar recently

studied trends in the United States relating to technological ability increasing in the private sector

of healthcare, which means that more people are turning to technology in order to receive

information about their personal health care. With constant technological improvements in the

field of health services, rhetorical analysis of communication methods is needed to keep rhetoric

within the community admissible. As a freshman at the University of Central Florida and a Health

Services Administration major, I have recently been immersed in the subject of health care services,

especially examples of organizations on campus. The main health service offered on campus is

UCF Student Health Services, which serves as an outpatient facility for staff and students. Student
 [Last Name] 2

Health Services has utilized online social media platforms in attempt to disperse health information

to students and staff through posts. I plan to research rhetoric within online posts pertaining to

outreach and information given by UCF Student Health Service’s social media pages in order to

examine which type of genre and platform receive the most online feedback. I plan to use these

results to open conversation to find the most effective rhetorical strategies for campus health

services and how utilization of such strategies could possibly increase awareness and involvement

in the organization.

Preliminary Research Questions:

• How does UCF Student Health Services utilize rhetoric within online platforms?

• To what extent do UCF students perceive information from UCF Student Health Services

social media platforms?

• What rhetorical strategies need to be utilized in social media platforms in the future in

order to increase feedback?

Methodology

I will examine the online message of intent of UCF Student Health Services to find goals

of the organization as a whole and then I will personally sample 50 UCF students to complete a 5-

question survey about perception and experience with online platforms of health services (see

survey questions below). Following the survey, I will analyze statistics of online rhetoric of

Student Health Services, particularly on their social media accounts of Twitter and Instagram to

find common genres and investigate the posts with the most likes and comments to measure their

success. I plan to analyze peer-reviewed articles relating to health services and social media
 [Last Name] 3

interaction in order to compare rhetorical discussion from the articles to rhetorical practices used

by UCF Student Health Services. Together, the survey and multimodal inquiry into multiple media

platforms should give insight to what genres of focus are most effective in communicating health

information on campus. Comparing these findings to the content analysis of my researched sources

will help find the effectiveness of health services social media rhetoric on campus.

Survey Questions

1. What year of college are you currently in?

• Freshman

• Sophomore

• Junior

• Senior

• Graduate Student

2. How many campus-related social media accounts do you follow?

• 0

• 1

• 2

• 3

• 4+

3. Would you ever turn to a campus-associated health service for information via

technology?

• Yes

• No
 [Last Name] 4

4. How credible would you consider information given by campus health service’s

social media accounts to be?

• Not credible

• Somewhat credible

• Credible

5.

Bibliography

Downs, Doug. “Rhetoric: Making Sense of Human Interaction and Meaning-Making.”

Writing About Writing, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2017, pp. 457-483

Porter, James E. “Intertextuality and the Discourse Community.” Writing About Writing,

Bedford/St.Martin’s, 2017, pp. 542-557

George, Daniel R. “‘Friending Facebook?’ A Minicourse on the Use of Social Media by

Health Professionals.” Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions, vol. 31, no. 3,

Jan. 2011, pp. 215–219. DOI: 10.1002/chp.20129

Kim, Sung Un, and Sue Yeon Syn. “Credibility and Usefulness of Health Information on

Facebook: A Survey Study with U.S. College Students.” Information Research: An International

Electronic Journal, vol. 21, no. 4, Dec. 2016, issn: eissn-1368-1613

Nimkar, Swateja. “Promoting Individual Health Using Information Technology: Trends

in the US Health System.” Health Education Journal, vol. 75, no. 6, Oct. 2016, pp. 744–752,

doi:10.1177/0017896916632790

Mayfield-Johnson, Susan. “Adult Learning, Community Education, and Public Health:

Making the Connection through Community Health Advisors.” New Directions for Adult and

Continuing Education, no. 130, Jan. 2011, pp. 65–77. doi.10.1002/ace.411

[Last Name] 5