I decided to shadow grade this essay, because I submitted this assignment knowing that

not all parts of my essay were complete. With that said, I decided to make some global and
minor changes to my piece. My first critique said that my literature review could use some
clarification by adding topic sentence is to each paragraph or theme that I presented. Doing this
would help connect each source, to ensure a flowing essay. The first topic sentence I inserted
was to discuss the stereotypes put on Greek life and how they negatively impact the sororities
and fraternities reputation. I think that the topic sentence I inserted clears up why I included the
ways of communication my sorority utilizes , to prove that sororities and fraternities are more
than just throwing parties and attending fun events. They actually have a purpose and they do
good in the world. these Events require a certain type of communication that only genres will
accomplish in order to be successful. My second topic sentence that I included was “my genres
are all different to one another, serving a specific and unique purpose in the capital to sorority”.
This makes the entire paragraph clear because I introduced the idea that there are multiple
genres. Then I go on to explain how each genre is specific to a certain type of situation. My third
topic sentence was geared to introduce the methodologies that were used in my primary articles
and to analyze if I agreed with them or not. It also introduces how my research will differ from
the research previously collected. My second critique was about my annotated bibliography, that
I was doing a good job summarizing my articles, but I was missing most of my synthesis. I
realized that I was missing a few articles in my annotated bibliography, so I began by adding the
pieces I had missed. The first article that I had included was called “Sorority Life Reimagined:
Deaf Culture and Mainstream Sorority Life”. This article was about an oppressed group of
people at California State University who weren't being accepted in sorority life simply because
they had a disability. Some of these girls were hearing impaired and some of them were blind.
so, the solution to this issue, was to create a sorority, Alpha Sigma Theta, that was inclusive too
those who were set to the side. Being in a sorority with an impairment like these girls had,
adjustments had to be made in order to get information out to the members. genre is required in
order to get information to anybody , so this is how it relates to my research article. because not
one genre works for every member of the Alpha Sigma Theta sorority, an adjustment had to be
made comma and new genres had to be added so everyone could be included. In my sorority , it
would be impossible to include everyone on one chain of communication, so multiple genres are
necessary. The next article I included was called ‘Genre as textual agency: Using
Communicative Rationality.’ While I was able to get some information from this article, not a lot
of it had to do with my research . With that said I was able to connect a small portion to my
research and that is the idea that genres typically are recognized in a text format but in reality
there are so many more avenues for communication to be relayed. For example, illustrations
have the ability to be of more impact than words especially for younger children or people that
have to think or act fast. this article utilized three of my essential themes that I discussed in my
research article. These were discourse community, genre and communication.
 Literature Review and Annotated Bibliography

Taylor Smith

Department of Writing and Rhetoric, University of Central Florida

ENC 1102

Professor Mooney

March 6, 2020
 My discourse community is my sorority, which I participate in on a daily basis. My topic

area is based on how genres within Kappa Delta sorority contribute to the success of planned

events. These events including philanthropies, social functions, sisterhood events, etc., are all

planned and executed with the help of genres. The type of genre utilized is dependent upon the

type of communication in the situation. In all of these means of communication, there are

specific lexis the chapter members use, that only those within the discourse community would

understand.

Stereotypes are extremely prevalent in Greek life, which harmfully impacts their

reputation within the college community. The majority of the research in this specific topic area

shows fraternities and sororities in a negative light, stating that they are incompetent of

completing the duties they are designed for. But, what I have found that positively impacted my

research is how many modes of communication are used to spread word within Greek life. The

main mode of communication acknowledged in all of my articles was weekly chapter. This is

where a majority of the information is relayed to the pledge classes, because the council has their

full attention. Since sororities rely heavily on ritual and tradition, chapter routine has stayed

constant throughout the years. Currently, there are many genres of communication used within a

sorority that include weekly chapter, Facebook, GroupMe, and Instagram.

My genres are all different to one another, serving a specific and unique purpose in the

Kappa Delta sorority. Each of these have their specific agenda when it comes to information. In

one of my older articles, they stated how the chapter hung banners to publicize their upcoming

events and newspaper advertisements in order to get word out to potential new members about

recruitment, whereas today the council would rely heavily on social medias to promote their

chapter. The genres listed above are all casual genres and ways of communication. For more
serious and pressing pieces of information, the council may opt to send a formal email. This

correlates more to what I am trying to prove because even though the ways of communication

are different now than they were ten years ago, the basis of using communication via genre is

still the same.

Throughout my research and upon observing these articles, I have been able to see

what was successful and what needed work in terms of collecting accurate and reliable

information. The methodologies of proving the effectiveness of leadership were improved in an

article by Long because the previous study was outdated and didn’t accurately represent the

chapter as a whole. My research will depart from the previous stereotypes of sorority members

not being productive and contributing members of society. This research will help the shift of

acknowledging sororities for their hard work and dedication to putting on events like

philanthropies, all thanks to genres that allow information to be spread to the masses. My

research will help bridge the gap between decades since in the past, they utilized different genres

then the present day.

D., L. (2011, November 30). Unchallenged, Professed Core Values: Do Undergraduate

Fraternity/Sorority Members Actually Benefit in the Areas of Scholarship, Leadership,

Service, and Friendship?. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1006547. This article

focuses on the stereotypes of fraternity and sorority and how they affect the publics’

perception of Greek life as a whole. They begin by diving into past studies done on

scholarship, leadership, service and friendship within the Greek community and find that

the statistics were very low. So, the author decides to change the variables of the research

to get more accurate results. Long finds that in each section being tested, scholarship,

leadership, service and friendship, were significantly more successful and prevalent in

sorority and fraternity life than previously stated. For example, study hours are

mandatory for most Greek organizations, forcing all members to dedicate a few hours per

week to academics.

This article relates to the other articles within my annotated bibliography because

it includes the major themes I have been referring to throughout my research proposal,

genre and rhetoric. It expands upon establishing a culture within your sorority and

fraternity, and the way they go about it is through communication. This communication is

carried out via various genres. Long talks a lot about leadership and service

(philanthropy) within the Greek community and this really benefitted my research. He

goes into detail about the benefits of leadership, which I was able to expand upon in my

research proposal by explaining how each position of power is able to get things

accomplished.
Henley, T. K. (2001). Utilizing Research to Develop a Plan to Gain Members and Increase

Morale in a University Sorority. Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing, 8(4),

103–112. doi: 10.1300/j054v08n04_09. The main focus of this article was on the

recruitment process of sorority rush. This includes how the chapter produces a new

member class. The article acknowledges the fact that Greek Life doesn’t have the best

reputation when it comes to recruitment. In order to be appealing to the potential new

members, the chapter as a whole has to create reasons for them to want to join. This

includes many scholarship opportunities and social benefits that will positively impact

their futures at the university. Since this article was written in a time where social media

wasn’t as prevalent, the chapter would market using flyers, banners, advertisements in the

school newspaper, along with holding events on school grounds.

This article specifically relates to the other articles in my annotated bibliography

because they it has to do with my discourse community as a whole. Not all of them focus

on the same topics, but they all have the same overarching theme, which is going into

detail about the moving parts in a typical sorority. This particular article is the most

crucial to my research question because it discusses the various forms of genre the

chapters use to put on an event such as recruitment. While their methods are a little

outdated, the general idea of utilizing texts to carry out an event is still the same.

Downs, D. (2018, January 28). Research. Retrieved from

https://dougdownsteaching.wordpress.com/research/. Wardle, E., & Downs, D. (2017). Writing

about writing: a college reader. Boston: Bedford/St.

 Martins. This specific piece in Writing About Writing touches on how writers are affected

by the environment around them, as well as the things they see, and how this influences

the way they write. Texts, especially texts used within a discourse community are always

used for a certain purpose, whether to give instructions, entertain the reader or inform.

They give an example of a Food Banks’ website that uses text to encourage the public to

participate in food drives, while making it easy for them to do so. This is a good instance

of the idea that all texts have a purpose. This is where genres come into play. Wardle and

Downs breaks genres down to any particular text that you recognize given a specific set

of characteristics within a particular situation. Every genre is distinct based on the

contents of their texts.

This article relates to the other articles within my research because it is essentially

giving the framework to genre, which is my overarching theme. Each of my articles have

to do with the various genre utilized within my discourse community, and this article

gives structure and background information in order for those articles to make sense to

the reader. The relevance of this article it goes into detail about what makes a genre a

genre and helps the reader more able to identify one.

Gee, J. P. (2014). An introduction to discourse analysis: theory and method. London: Routledge.

Gee frames the reading by defining the term ‘discourses’ as “saying, writing, doing,

being, valuing, believing”. This is basically the idea of who you are in the world, but he

controversially states that you can’t attain or possess a discourse, but you are

acknowledged by the members of that community as sharing connections based on your

qualities. He calls this an “all or nothing” effect, meaning you either are it or you’re not.
 This article by Gee directly correlates to my other articles because he talks about

discourse. My other articles are all based on my discourse community, sorority, and all

talk about how the discourse community functions and their day to day agendas. In order

for my research to make sense to the reader, it is essential for there to be background

information about one of the main topics. If the reader didn’t understand what a discourse

community was, the entire research would be unproductive. This article by Gee is also

impactful in the research because I can take what he says and interpret it in my own

ways. He says that one may change their rhetoric in order to adjust to their discourse

community. This correlated to the different genres members within the sorority utilize on

a daily basis, and how each of the genres are used for different means of communication.

Being able to pick and choose which genre is appropriate for a specific piece of text

makes communication as a whole more productive.

Stapleton, L. D., & Nicolazzo. (2019, March 1). Sorority Life Reimagined: Deaf Culture and

Mainstream Sorority life. Retrieved from

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ss.20296. This article highlights a

specific California State sorority who is comprised of hearing impaired women. Their

mantra is to challenge the whole “idea” of normal and shift the publics’ view of

disability. There are multiple stories from women who have a diability themselves, or

have experience with someone who lives with a chronic illness or disability such as

blindness and deafness. These accounts go into detail about the struggles they have

endured and the discrimination that they have faced going in to recruitnment with a

disability. From this issue, Alpha Sigma Theta was born. This is a sorority that welcomed
 these women who had been discriminated against and treated them how they should be

treated. There were questions, how would a deaf girl be able to participate in chapter?

How would a blind girl be able to respond to texts? These questions were all answered

with easy adjustments from the chapter.

This article is relevant to my particular writing-related issue because

though these girls do have impairments, that doesn’t mean they aren’t able to participate

in communication in sorority. Genres are so wide in range and diverse that there is bound

to be one that will work for everyone. Communication is sometimes a tricky thing to

maneuver, so this article further proves my point that a range of genres is essential in

order to reach every single member in the discourse community. In my sorority it would

be impossible for there to be one mode of communication because everyone receives

information differently. If someone missed chapter they would not know what is going

on, so that is why there are other platforms, or genres, that compensate for them.

Genre as textual agency: Using communicative relationality ... (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325703446_Genre_as_textual_agency_Using_c

ommunicative_relationality_to_theorize_the_agential-

performative_relationship_between_human_and_generic_text. This article expresses that

genres are widely recognized as strictly text based, but what is failed to be considered is

the amount of genre that is truly out there. Picture based genres such as the example they

give in the text is an illustration of instructions for people to follow, that makes it easier

and more effective for someone to understand. Especially in a crisis, illustrations may
make it possible for humans to make connections faster in their brains, rather than to

process and interpret words. In another examination of a genre such as written out rules,

the firefighters were more apt to remember and follow the rules if they were able to read

them in multiple variations of texts.

This article utilizes many of my essential themes I am researching, discourse

community, genre and communication. It relates to my research because it involves the

function of a discourse community, the firefighters, and attempting to use multiple

different genres to relay a communication. The firefighters might retain information

better given different genre, or level of importance of information being relayed. Just like

in my discourse community, Kappa Delta, the use of genre is dependent on the formality

of the information.