1. The culture/ online community that Wu is trying to portray is the factitious disorder, when she was looking up information on faking illness. 
2. She creates a verbal portrait of this community because she gives the definition, gives severe levels of this disorder, like a common one which is Munchausen syndrome. She continues to explain her experiences and what happens to those who have this disorder. She also includes why she decided to look it up, again, including her own personal connection to this topic. 
3. She uses the internet to find sources, while also using specific citations from published writers. She uses message-board forums led by threads posted by other users. She then finds out the forum consists of those they’ve “played for” as in the friends and family of the FDers. She also uses her own experiences as a source because being a part of this community, she has knowledge on her own experience and that is important because it is like interactive research, inserting oneself into the topic she’s researching. She also notes down Dr. Feldman’s own words and prognosis, but includes that he is essentially plugging his own book for further knowledge. She mainly uses forums and real life experiences to triangulate the data from her findings and determine the right information. 
4. Footnotes play a role in Wu’s text because she lets us know information such as name changes, little facts, and even some more in depth details that would fit oddly into the writing and also developing information. 

Syed Shataj Hosain

Writing For Social Science

Professor Shamecca A. Harris

Reading Response #1

21th March, 2020.

                   The essay “Out Patients” by Elise Wu is a patient of Factitious Disorder. In the essay, Elise Wu shows her point of view on the Factitious Disorder also reveals the experience of the disorder she experienced. There is an extraordinary amount of worry that comes along with having Factitious Disorder. The fear that one’s cherished ones will abandon them, that they will no longer be cared for, also if it gets worse they might have to seek medical help. Wu was also one of them who exaggerated the symptoms of being sick so that the doctor can trust them and give the treatment. Wu also did not tell her therapist about having the disorder. She was trying to portray the Factitious Disorder over the internet and also she did some research online about the patients, their family members, and also about their doctors. She found out there was an online community that was a visual discussion group for people who are interested in Factitious Disorder. She was constantly checking archive posts, taking notes of time and dates for the posts. Wu created a verbal portrait by keeping track of the people who posted comments, also she took notes from that. Wu used other sources offline to triangulate the data she gathered from the other Factitious Disorder websites. She also kept her name secret because she only wanted to learn about the Factitious Disorder and did not want to expose any of the people who treated her or were there when she was facing the disorder. Wu uses the language “coming out” to show the people that she faked her illness. The footnotes were very useful in Wu’s text because the readers can easily get the idea of what she was talking about instead of searching the things online. Also, it protects the information and gives credibility to the data that were collected. Wu does a remarkable job reflecting on her personal thoughts and feelings and sharing them with others who also suffer from the same disorder-which will help them to understand the things she faced because of the Factitious Disorder.

Elise Wu is trying to portray the factitious subculture. A culture of people who fake their illnesses to receive care and attention. Wu, who faked her illnesses is trying to recover from the behavior. Her first findings of this community is through a doctor, one she doesn’t trust is helping people in their best interest. She finds her first group of people that are victims of factitious disorder, someone they know, or love is manipulating them. This group is being advised by the same doctor that she distrusts. Just based on this doctor and group she is demotivated to recover. Two years later she returns to her route of recovery finding a group that is suffering from the factitious disorder. She calls these people “FDers”, although she is part of this group it feels like she’s looking on the outside in. To become part of this group she must provide her real identity which she fakes. Wu finds it ironic that most people are probably doing the same.
In the group, she identifies a lot of the tactics she also used to use as an “FDer”. She uses flashbacks to give us an idea of what she went through. One flashback is of her being observed by a group of medical students and a doctor. She realizes now that the doctor was hinting at her fake illness to the students, stomach pains that would come and go. As she realized this in the hospital she quickly tried to be discharge and change locations. Something “FDers” often do when they are found out.
Wu uses this language of “coming out” to describe telling people the truth about fake illnesses. This “coming out” is serious to “FDers”, they need to know who to trust, who would believe them and who will not be angry. Wu notes that after years of being in the group she’s become numb to these stories, that her empathy might’ve run out.
A lot of Wu’s footnotes are explanations for things that are not obvious to the reader. Some of her notes are also to increase the knowledge of her reader about certain words or phrases she uses in the text.

It was interesting to see how someone who suffers from the same disorder portrays those who are going through the same thing. A small part of me expected a story to be a bit different. I thought the community would be Wu’s safe space and a place where she doesn’t feel horrible about the things she’s done. But I was surprised when she got “bored” of the community and sought help from her old therapist. In a way, this group is great for those who have the disorder to realize they are not alone. But it could also make someone feel too safe that they don’t seek the help they need.

In Elise Wu’s essay “Out Patients,” she investigates the online community surrounding the medical condition called factitious disorder (FD). Wu creates a verbal portrait of this community by throwing the audience into an ER as she begins to describe her own experience. She also depicts the forum and group message board she visited during the study, giving behaviors that the posters tend to have in common when voicing their thoughts. Yet she distinguishes the two sites by explaining how their behaviors differ. Additionally, Wu lets the audience in on insider language – “coming out” referring to disclosing to those close to you of the medical condition.

Wu utilizes several different sources throughout the study. She uses herself as a source, having had FD herself, to insert her narrative and thoughts into her writing. She also employs medical facts to contextualize the subject of her study – especially after illustrating her memory at the beginning of the essay. Wu wields the observations she made on both the forum and group message board to show the perspectives of those with FD and those effected by FD.  Wu was able to triangulate her data by effortlessly switch perspectives. This enabled the reader to get a well-rounded view of the online community of FD. In her essay, Wu made the choice to incorporate footnotes which made the text flow easily. The footnotes helped give context to some things that the audience may not already know. Wu does a great job of portraying the online community she chose.

As a transplant in New York City, I often find myself amidst the buzzing building of Penn Station where I await yet another train ride to New Hampshire.  I try to get there early as I have made many rookie mistakes of being late, thus leading to the dreaded missed train.  So, in my time spent watching minutes slowly pass by I have had the interesting opportunity to observe all the chaos of the lives of fellow travelers.  On this particular day, I found myself in a unique situation due to the fear of the Coronavirus.  Among the various rushing crowds, I counted twenty seven people walking around with masks on, and eight of those people also wearing latex gloves.  Although official information states that these masks are nearly pointless in the efforts to avoid the virus, I tend to agree with those who choose to wear them that go by the saying “better safe than sorry”.  Aside from the things I noticed relating to this pandemic, I also observed several happenings which I have found to be common in my many visits to Penn Station.  For example, there are many homeless individuals who roam about and sleep inside the train station, and on this day, I saw twelve.  I have been taught by New Yorkers to ignore them, but that is not in my nature.  One man with a prosthetic leg and a long scraggly beard asked me for my kindness in a donation to his efforts to find shelter.  I spoke with him for a minute and I did not have any cash on me, so I gave him some of the snacks I packed for myself for my six hour commute.  Talking with this man reminded me that a six hour train ride is not so bad compared to the situation he is in, and I appreciated the realignment of my perspective.  I also often see young high school boys with clipboards wandering the crowds and asking people to donate to their basketball team.  I have been told by many people here that this is a total scam and to never fall for the innocent faces of youth seeking help for a supposedly good cause.  However, I tend to assume the best in people and I always hope that they are sincere, although this might just be a blatant display of how naïve I am to the natural schemes of the city.  I saw seven of these boys asking about, and every single interaction I observed ended in the stranger rejecting their request.  Some individuals were rude and dismissive to the boys, others ignored them and kept walking, and one woman reacted in the same way I did five minutes before by letting them finish their routine and respectfully declining.  Somehow, I find it easier to turn someone down if I at least hear them out first.  Lastly, I took a fly-on-the-wall moment to observe the people impatiently watching the screen displaying all of the train departures.  As the line with the information for a train to Washington D.C. finally posted its designated track, a sea of people scattered through the crowd to line up for boarding.  The group I stood surrounded by swiftly thinned out, and in minutes, steadily grew again just as quickly.  My favorite part of Penn Station is watching all the people running around trying to catch their trains.  Before moving here, I grew up with this image of the hustle of the city, and I find it to be so satisfying that one of my many “rose-colored” expectations of this place is true.  However, it is not so gratifying when I find myself in that very situation, experiencing the panic of a pure New York Minute.

Today I decided to observe the City College NAC center. In particular I observed the rotunda area above the escalator entrance, one of City College’s busiest areas. What I noticed is that a lot of students were still going about their usual business. The usual hussle and bussle could still be found (at least during the time I spent observing the area) in the area. People still had set up stands and were doing informational events using their set up desks. There was even a free food stand still despite the recent events with the Corona Virus. I found this very interesting in particular, cause I figured people would be too paranoid to eat free public food out of worry of the virus spreading. I considered getting a free donut myself, but I held out on it. Admittedly, I’ve began taking some precautions while going to class such as bringing a hand sanitizer bottle with me, and decided to pass on the free food… just in case. Besides that though, I did of course overhear a lot of talk about the Corona Virus itself. It seemed overall that City College students were still willing to go and do what they had to do, (which today would’ve been to show up on campus and attend their classes) even despite the virus. Now this has all changed given the update today, but I still found the spirit of the students to be pretty admirable. It shows that even despite the public mood being uncertain and uneasy, many of us CUNY students were still willing to give it our all.

Today I went to Brookville Park in Rosedale, Queens, NY. I chose multiple places for observation as I was there today: the open field, playground, and bridge with the lakewater beneath it. As I was in the open field, I watched a bunch of teenagers play catch with a football. They practiced running routes (which is the specific direction on the field that you’re supposed to run during a play). They continued running routes for about fifteen minutes, then switched to practicing defense techniques. None of them were wearing coats, which makes sense because NYC’s weather has been getting warmer. I wondered if they were skipping school since their age group is in high school and today (March 11th, 2020) is a school day. As I was on the playground, I saw children running around, playing tag and enjoying the swings. One little boy, about 3 or 4 was chasing a girl about the same age. The little girl fell and started crying, so the boy helped her up. The children on the swings were swinging at dangerously high heights and had to be warned against that so that they did not hurt themselves. They too, were wearing no coats, but rather sweatshirts instead. After watching them play, I casually made my way over to the bridge over the lakewater. It was a much less populated area; no one was there except the occasional person walking or jogging by. Even the joggers had no coats on. The lake was very still; virtually no movement was present within it. Common themes I realized within my observation is that people’s attire is reflecting the change in season and that people tend to be very happy when participating in physical activity. 

As I sit on this couch that could be at most worth 99 cents, I’m beginning to wonder whether I am in the right place to begin concentrating to write on this blog. I reside currently on the 3rd floor of the library at City College of New York. As people walk in and out, I noticed that not one book is missing from these shelves, which leads me to the thought like when we were kids and had to go on that trip to learn how to checkout a book from the library, was that even necessary? We sit in a circular shape, everybody in a different seating position, slowly but surely leaning in to hear into this debate. My friend Demetrius, a skinny 5’7 child. Kanye is his favorite rapper of all time and he made a ballistic claim that Kanye had more classic albums than Drake and that set me off. Resulted in everybody throwing their favorite songs out and the volume of each voice amplifying as the discussion progresses further and further. End of discussion was with me leaning so far up to where I almost fell off, but all in all i won so its ok.

The place I chose to observe people was a Korean bbq. Right off the bat, watching the servers and how they stare at customers who’ve been here long is quite amusing. They don’t shy away after being caught, continuing to bravely stare, making it known that they’re ready for them to leave. The couple just laughs as the boyfriend gets up and grabs more meat to cook.
Walking in, the manager or possibly even the boss, happily shows us to our table, taking in face fresh faces as more money on a Tuesday night. The serves immediately turn on the grill and advises us that the buffet closes at 11:30 and the establishment at 12am.
As we’re picking out the meat we want to cook, another couple leaves, and the waiters immediately rush over and grab the tip, pocketing it and cleaning as fast as they could, relived there was one less table to worry about.

A older white man walks in with two dogs, immediately advising everyone that he’ll be “quick” while the servers look amused at the sight of a dog in a bubble backpack.

As the night reaches closer to 11:30 the Hispanic clean up crew begin to eye the last two remaining tables, making noise that indicates it’s time for us to hurry up and leave.

The servers begin to talk amongst themselves in their common tongue, one would self consciously wonder if it’s about them. The other 4 faces at the table look tired and ill, focusing their eyes on a plate of chicken left to be cooked. They look at it as if they’re regretting even going out for the night, wondering if it was even worth it.

As the night wraps up, the servers quickly hand over the check and before it’s even signed, the table is cleared and the server has already turned off the grill.

I found it odd that the server was just staring at an innocent couple enjoying their mean, not even hiding the fact that he was doing so. A takeaway would be that the boss is always in the mood for more business and clients but the servers don’t feel the same.

Bethanie Corona

3/11/20

Post #3

Walking into the McDonald’s on 125th and Saint Nicholas the smell of fries and apple pie ran into my nostrils causing my mouth to water. I had been craving a cheeseburger and fries and I hadn’t had McDonald’s in a while. Once I walked in and saw the line I was perplexed because I was super hungry after class and I didn’t want to walk to the one nearest to my building in Brooklyn when I was already in one. The McDonald’s was packed with young middle schoolers and high school kids, families, strollers and some elderly with their canes and coffee. As I waited in the kiosk line, a young mom in front of me waiting to order was yelling at her kids to be mindful and not horse around. The mom gave them that look and they instantly stopped play fighting and began to chat about the toys displayed in the window on the wall, they planned about which one they hoped to get in their happy meals. After I ordered I realized how much the line was backed up clearly, the workers are just finishing up from a rush hour and I waited almost 30 minutes for my order. The person handling the brown bags with the orders next to the cashier was flustered and had to keep double-checking with customers if they had gotten their drinks and sauces. I sat down on a bench like a table as I waited and almost wobbled off because the seat was broken, luckily an older gentleman, with a salt and pepper beard who was sitting across from me was reading the newspaper, so I don’t think he noticed which saved some embarrassment. I got up and stood near the counter to wait for my order as I watched people walk in. Two young sisters around 14 years of age, were waiting and when they got their food they instantly sprinted out the door to get out of the suffocating space. I observed an older lady holding up the kiosk line because she couldn’t figure out how to use the new technology; people tried to help her but she inevitably gave up and went to the cashier to order. A mid-aged woman with a large personality and long bright fingernails began to complain about an odor and the line. Then she tells the struggling old lady that “she should of went to the cashier from the jump for all the time she spent in the kiosk.” Right after I finally got my food, I sat and ate.