Taylor 1

2514 Phelps Way, UCSB

Raeleetaylor@ucsb.edu

November 4th, 2019

Writing 2 Publishing House, Inc.
1234 Gaucho Rd., UCSB

Dear Mrs. Rachel Feldman,

My article titled “Is there REALLY a difference between Sociology and Psychology?”, is a peer
reviewed article that has passed through the evaluation of several specialist in my field which is why I
believe my article belongs in your journal. I focus on how Psychology and Sociology examine Greek life.
In the article, I focus on how Psychology and Sociology are very similar in analysis, but also how they
examine and see things differently.

I chose Psychology and Sociology because I am currently studying psychology and planning on
switching to Sociology soon, which I have heavily looked into. My experience with studying these
disciplines and use of my resources here at UCSB assisted me in finding good examples of writing in the
disciplines and to write a well informed article. Psychology has always been a huge interest for me and
Sociology is very similar, so I am very motivated to learn about it as well.

I have been reading your journal for years. The articles published inside it always are thought
provoking because they bring up so many ideas I have never seen before. I have always wanted to be
published in your journal. I have researched online and reread many of the articles in your journal and I
think that my own article would fit in among the other articles, but would also bring some new ideas to
the table.

If I am published in your article I would love to have a follow up personal interview preferably via cell
phone interview. I will follow up on November 15th at 10 am. If you need more material for the article I
have two more sources of peer reviewed articles that I can use for more material. Thank you so much for
your consideration and your time to read my article. Hopefully we can meet soon to discuss the
possibility of my article being published.

Sincerely,
Raelee Taylor

Enclosure:
Article, “Is there REALLY a difference between Sociology and Psychology?”
Raelee Taylor

Rachel Feldman
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Writing 2

10/29/2019

Is there REALLY a difference between Sociology and Psychology?

As a preteen, I gained an interest in Psychology. I was amazed at the way Psychology explained why

humans did certain things and how our brains function. Since, I was always told that Sociology was

similar to Psychology, I was interested in learning about it as well. After learning about both disciplines I

have to ask the question is there really a difference between Sociology and Psychology? Academic

writings are usually written in specific ways to identify with a specific discipline. An academic discipline

is a subdivision of knowledge that is taught and researched at the university level. The academic

disciplines that will be discussed about in this essay are Psychology and Sociology. A peer reviewed

article is an article that is evaluated by one or more specialist from the field that the article is written for.

Using one peer reviewed article (“Reproduction of Oppression through Fraternity and Sorority

Recruitment and Socialization” by Cristobal Salinas) and a print book (Wrongs of passage: fraternities,

sororities, hazing, and binge drinking by Hank Nuwer), I will be able to analyze their similarities and

differences. While analyzing the article and the book, it was discovered that the disciplines are very

similar in identifying and analyzing characteristics about certain behaviors usually using statistics and real

life proof, but Psychology focuses on why people behave the way they do and Sociology focuses on how

people’s behaviors affect society.

In “Reproduction of Oppression through Fraternity and Sorority Recruitment and Socialization” a

peer reviewed article by Cristobal Salinas, she argues the sororities and fraternities produce multiple

forms of oppression during recruitment and socialization activities. The author argues this by introducing

the three forms of oppression (institutional oppression, cultural oppression and individual oppression) and

racial inequity in recruitment and Greek socialization. The argument is very convincing because she gives

examples of the forms of oppression and data on opressession to back up her statements. Salinas also tries

to give ideas on how to fix this issue and try to make recruitment and Greek socialization more inclusive
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to all people. The article adds a different perspective on negative affects of Greek life because she gives

helpful and strong advice on how to help the pressing issue instead of just suggesting that Greek life

should be shut down. The author uses other academic sources about negatives of Greek life and other’s

personal accounts of times where Greek life is not being inclusive for all. Salinas writes, “In another

example, at Tufts University, leadership of a national organization initially recommended not giving out a

bid to a transgender student based on Title IX” (Salinas).She is using this example to back what she is

saying about inequality and oppression in Greek life events. Salinas introduces her sources to back up

what she is already saying, so she slides in information to prove a statement she already made. Her use of

sources and introducing them like that does make the argument effective because it is helping to prove the

points she makes throughout the article. The author’s targeted audience is current Greek life members and

people who work for or in Greek life because she is giving directions on how to change Greek life and

make it more inclusive.The author assumes that the reader has a general understanding of what Greek life

is and probably is able to recognize characteristics of inequality in society. All the information is

organized by specific topics like different kinds of oppression, how to fix the problem, etc. The discipline

this article falls under is Sociology because this is all about how sororities and fraternities are negatively

affecting people and society by being another source of racial inequity and oppression.

In Wrongs of passage: fraternities, sororities, hazing, and binge drinking, a print book by Hank

Nuwer, he argues about the problems that happen in Greek life- mainly in fraternities but also sometimes

in sororities- such as hazing and binge drinking. The author makes this argument by giving many

examples of actual cases of hazing and hazing related deaths from fraternities. Nuwer writes, “When at

last a young man entered the room where Chad lay, he recognized that Chad’s breathing was shallow.

Vomit coated the pillow and comforter. Instead of phoning 911, the young man asked fraternity brothers

to help,” (Nuwer 10). The story telling of Chad’s story appeals to pathos and evokes feelings in the reader

to get the point across of the problem, but then Nuwer analyzes the behavior and makes points of why the
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fraternity brothers made the bad decisions of hazing and not helping. The use of all the real life examples

makes the argument very effective and convincing because it backs the statements and does appeal to the

reader’s feelings since this topic is so depressing. The argument doesn’t really bring a new perspective to

Greek life since this is a common complaint in this specific community, but it does bring to light so many

cases of hazing and probably reminds people of many forgotten cases. The sources that Nuwer uses are

real life people who have gone through these issues, in other words boys who went through hazing in

their fraternity, girls who suffered abuse from their sisters in sororities, and parents of children who died

from hazing in college. The author’s intended audience is people who participate in Greek life and work

in Greek life because he wants these people to see the wrong in these problems that have been happening

since the beginning of Greek life. Nuwer hopes that if he is able to reach the audience with his book that

the audience will see the wrong in the negative behavior within the Greek community and make a change.

The author assumes that the reader has a general understanding of what Greek life is. The book is

organized by chapter and each chapter has a specific topic like hazing in fraternities, hazing in sororities,

why people participate in hazing and etc. The discipline this book falls under is psychology because after

the author introduces the behaviors of students in Greek life he then tries to explain why people behave

this way and why people continue to be a part of these negative habits. During this explanation, Nuwer

also uses key words from Psychology that also makes this book easy to identify as falling under a

Psychological discipline.

The way that Sociology and Psychology approach topics are very similar. They want the data and

evidence of what people are doing, however the way they conclude is how the disciplines start to differ

because psychology likes to focus on why people behave the way they do and sociology likes to focus on

how the way that people behave effects society. They often identify and analyze the same things from

people’s behaviors but apply what they find differently. Sometimes it is hard to see which one is which in

academic peer reviewed articles like the ones used in the essay but it can be seen with the way that author
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starts to conclude with the evidence. Once the author’s get to the explanation, they are able to start

applying their own views and opinions on the situation, which is when the discipline starts to come into

view for the reader to see.