[ATTW-L] TC and body donation programs

[Dragga, Sam]

With All Hallows’ Eve and Dîa de Los Muertos looming, this could be the ideal time to engage your students (and their tacit anxieties about Doctor Frankenstein) in a rhetorical analysis of technical communication materials related to body donation programs for medical education. Consider, for example, the UCLA program at https://www.uclahealth.org/programs/donatedbody. Here you will find examples of FAQs, donor forms, instructions, a definition of water cremation, a memorial service video, and explanations of the several criteria for donations.

It will also be instructive to compare/contrast materials available from the body donation programs of various locations and institutions: for example, in New York at https://amsny.org/initiatives/anatomical-donations/ or in  Illinois at https://www.agaillinois.org or in Colorado at https://medschool.cuanschutz.edu/state-anatomical-board. Your local body donation program will also have materials available for examination.

Students might assess how program materials try to generate the ethos, logos, and pathos necessary to inspire donations or might weigh the success/failure of a program’s persuasive efforts. Questions about the clarity of program policies and practices as well as the propriety of words and images are likely to elicit animated class discussions.

Sam

Sam Dragga
Professor Emeritus
Texas Tech University
sam.dragga at ttu.edu
1-806-543-6099

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