In researching the amount of writing used both academically and professionally in my college field I was very happy and surprised in my findings. The bulk of information I obtained was from interviewing Mrs. Nancy Robertson. Mrs. Robertson is licensed in both physical therapy and athletic training. Her degrees include a bachelor in physiology from the University of Wyoming, and a masters of physical therapy from Colorado State. She is currently active in both of her fields as an employee of the Casper Orthopedic Clinic.



Academically speaking in this field once all core classes are finished and the specific curriculum classes are being taken essays or any papers dealing with composition are not valid. The classes for this specific major include a lot of memorization and reading. Most of these classes are of a scientific nature and note taking is all that is really necessary. Since so much information is learned most tests are multiple choice or short answer questions. Composing papers really never comes up till graduate school. Probably the only writing that takes place during school is practicing taking notes similar to how a professional would in this field during and after examinations of patients. The formats of notes used in the physical therapy field are called S.O.A.P notes. The acronym S.O.A.P stands for; subjective, objective, assessment, and plan. This form of note taking is used in various fields, but in this specific field it is necessary to know what each letter of S.O.A.P is used for. Subjective is what the patient tells the therapist is wrong usually referring to an injury. The Objective pertains to what the therapist did to help their patients ailment and Assessment is concerned with whether the problem was better or worse after the therapists objective. Finally Plan deals with what is to be the next call of action in the case of that specific patient. This form of notes is very concise and to the point, complete sentences are in no way necessary in any writing in this field.

A great deal of paperwork is handled in this business and the ability to be short and concise is appreciated. One-word answers are preferred over long explanations of injuries and treatments. The notes that are taken by therapist these days are not even written down in most cases. It is becoming more and more popular to dictate notes into a tape recorder and have a secretary type them down at the end of the day. Mrs. Robertson said, All I seem to do anymore is write my signature. Other than that it s just a lot of insurance forms because treatments for injuries must be justified for insurance companies to pay for it.

Reading is very important and done quite often in this field. Staying current is very necessary and reading is the easiest and most convenient way to do so. Mrs. Robertson deemed reading professional journals in both the athletic rehab and physical therapy fields allow her to stay current in her field. Typical therapists do not do the writing of these journals and papers though. In most of the journals professors of physical therapy and athletic training are now writing the papers for journals and most of the research done by these professors now takes place at research laboratories. The last serious academic writing that Mrs. Robertson really had to do was for her masters of Physical therapy. She was demanded to write a thesis that she did on electrical stimulation that was approximately 30 pages long.

Being so closely related to the medical field demands the writing in this field to be very accurate and brief pertaining to all patients diagnosis and treatments. Documentation is very important but correct English and complete sentences are not demanded.