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Elaina M. Bassett
191 Main Street West
Banner Elk, NC 28604
P.O. Box 3153
(828) 773-9846
eb0185118@lmc.edu
October 8, 2014

To whom it may concern,

Within this paper I plan to help the reader to understand how a sorority, specifically Delta
Zeta Nu, is considered a discourse community. I will go over a meeting that they have had,
community service projects they have helped with, and anything else that will help clarify how it
fits the description of a discourse community. Within the paper I will be adding quotes which are
my weak point but I hope that they will help with the flow of the paper and my conclusion is also
one of my weak points. It will be hard to go into depth about everything the sorority does
because some of it we cannot talk about but I will strive to make the paper be as elaborate as
possible and help the reader understand to the best of my ability.

Elaina Bassett
Ms.Weaver
Rhetoric I
8 October, 2014
The Secret Life of ZN
There are discourse communities everywhere you look, there are even discourse
communities that you are in. Discourse communities can be a major part of a persons life, much
like a sorority can be a major part of a sisters life. Sororities are parts of colleges all around the
world. Though sororities have a negative stereotype I hope that after reading this you will
understand that not all sororities are just about the stereotypical parties that people portray them
to be. They give the students a chance to engage themselves in community work, get to know the
school better, and also make new friends and acquaintances throughout their entire life. When
you first decide to pledge you are making a lifelong commitment to sister/brother life. A sorority
is not just something you join for your time at college, but it is something you join to have a
lifelong family that will follow you until you die. Delta Zeta Nu, a sorority here on campus at
Lees McRae, sparked my interested and I decided to investigate further to understand exactly
how this sorority fits into the guidelines of Swales six rules to be a discourse community.
Methods:
Over the past week the Delta Zeta Nu has had a meeting that I was able to review and
record. The sorority has meetings every Sunday at eight at night in Evans auditorium; every
minute you are late you have to pay one dollar or, if you miss the whole meeting you have to pay

a total of twenty-five dollars. The meetings are roughly an hour long unless you are on the
executive court, in which case you would have to meet thirty minutes before the meeting with all
of the sisters. The meetings are a required event and all sisters are supposed to attend though
only 21 of the 25 members attended, two of them showed up late. To get some more information
on the sorority, as well as get some insiders perspectives I was able to interview a few members.
One of the members I interviewed has been part of the sorority for three years and on the
executive court for two years as the vice president; she really enjoys her position because it
makes her feel as though she has more power and say in what happens. I was also able to
interview two new members that are freshmen here on campus. This enabled me to get a
viewpoint from older members with executive power as well as new sisters who are still
becoming familiar with the sorority.
Results:
Since we are studying discourse communities in class it was very easy to tell that the sorority,
Delta Zeta Nu is, in fact, a discourse community. The interviews with the current members were
actually very successful in mentioning the aspects of almost all of the characteristics of what is
needed for a discourse community.
Characteristics of a Discourse Community:
Lexis: Lexis is a very important aspect of a discourse community. A lexis is a set of
specialized terms that are familiar with the members of a group but not as familiar for outsiders;
specialized lexis also can help the group to better do work and achieve goals. The Greek alphabet
is a good example of this; while Delta Zeta Nu members, and many other sororities and
fraternities, are required to know the Greek alphabet it may be very unfamiliar to someone not

involved in the group. Knowing the lexis within the community can help gather an overall
understanding of what is happening within the community as well. When Delta Zeta Nu had
Big/Little Week it may have been very unclear what was happening within the sorority if you
were unclear of their lexis and heard them talking about revealing their big. Getting to
understand the sorority and their lexis would help you realize that a big is actually an older
member that helps you throughout your sorority experience as well as any other experiences you
need help or advice with, much like a big sister would do. Another term that sororities and
fraternities use is calling fellow members brother and sister; though you may not be related by
blood when you are in a sorority discourse community you are expected to treat each other as
though you are family, hence calling each other as you would if you were family by blood.
Goals: Within any discourse community there are usually goals that the group strives to
accomplish, Delta Zeta Nu is much like that. After talking to the president of Delta Zeta Nu I
was able to come up with a standard goal for the sorority. The goal is to create a since of class,
respect and growth among the sisters; as said by the president of ZN, Sydnie Taylor. Most
sororities pride themselves in the community work they do around their college as well as
community work they do within their college. To achieve this goal the Delta Zeta Nu sorority
involves itself in community service projects and sister bonding activities. One of the community
service projects that have already taken place this semester within ZN is the fall fling that all of
the sisters attend to give a helping hand with the events at the local elementary school. The ZN
sorority also supported the sports teams over homecoming by spending the day tailgating; this
not only gave all the sisters exceptional bonding time but also showed our support for our school.
When interviewing both older and new sisters it seemed as though the one thing they enjoyed
most about the sorority was that they had sisters to lean on and it gave them a chance to make

new friends not only among fellow sisters but also allowed them to explore more of the people
on campus through school events. One of the new sisters actually felt the goal was to have a
sisterhood, and we accomplish that by our bonding activities. As you can see the goal is very
well reached within this discourse community.
Changing memberships: With a discourse community it is vital to have both novice and
expert members. For a discourse community to be properly balanced and grow it is better to have
an even balance of old to new members. . Delta Zeta Nu was founded in 2008 at Lees McRae
campus and is made up of 25 members, 15 of which are new. Within the first few weeks of
school we have a rush or pledge week. Within the pledge week new members are required to do
rigorous tasks that shows their dedication to wanting to be part of the sorority. Pledge week is
usually followed by the Big/Little reveal; a time when the older sisters are appointed to a new
member to become a big to. Every older member is appointed a little for them to advise
throughout their years in the sorority, the bigs and littles stay throughout the members time
in the sorority. Sororities follow you throughout your life so unless you leave a sorority you will
stay in it even if you are no longer at college. Delta Zeta Nu has done a decent job keeping in
touch with older members on campus as I have seen them around at tailgating and other
important sorority events on campus. All members of a sorority are very involved throughout
their life and are important to incoming members also.
Conclusion:
As you can see sororities are so much more then what they are stereotyped to be. With all
of the incoming members, lexis, and goals that they have it is very clear to see that they are a
discourse community much like any other club. I hope this paper was able to shed some light

into the secretive life of ZN and help you to see that not all sororities are stereotypically all
about the parties but more so about helping others within the community and school and
changing lives of people in colleges throughout the world.