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Ashleigh Cameron

Professor Sam

ENC1101

15 October 2023

How Alpha Xi Delta is a Discourse Community

For the past two months, my life has mostly revolved around my sorority, Alpha Xi Delta.

Over this time, I have learned how to adapt to the language and different practices we partake in

that only people in the sorority should know of, because of how secret and special it is to our

chapter. Our main motto is “Realize Your Potential”, meaning that every woman in our chapter

should exceed to be the best versions of themselves they can be. We currently have 158 members

in our chapter. World-wide, there are over 162,000 members in Alpha Xi Delta. We have special

rituals, sayings, and phrases that are very important to us. We have our weekly chapter meetings

every Sunday, but I am with my sorority friend group almost every day, because we vibe with

each other so well. By using Dan Melzer’s article “Understanding Discourse Communities” and

Sarah Seeley’s article “Read the Room! Navigating Social Contexts and Written Texts”, I show

how sororities, especially Alpha Xi Delta, are effective discourse communities through our

language, common goals, and many other characteristics.

In Dan Melzer’s article “Understanding Discourse Communities”, he mentions a list of

questions “you can ask yourself whenever you’re entering a new discourse community and

learning the genres of the community” (Melzer 110-111). These questions are easily answerable

with my sorority, Alpha Xi Delta. The goals of my sorority are to inspire girls to realize their

potential by providing opportunities for sisterhood, leadership, knowledge, and service. The most

experience communicators of my sorority are the girls who have been in the chapter the longest,
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as well as the girls who hold high positions, like the executive board. The different audiences my

sorority communicates with are different sororities, fraternities, other Greek organizations on

campus, as well as other Alpha Xi Delta chapters at other universities. I can add my different

characteristic skills to make the chapter the best it truly be. As listed, the questions about

discourse communities can be answered quite easily based off my sorority. I love how I had the

opportunity to be a part of an amazing discourse community, and I wouldn’t want it to be any

other way.

In Both Dan Melzer and Sarah Seeley’s articles, they talk about different viewpoints of

discourse communities that I think are very important to read about before anyone gets a full

understanding of what a discourse community is truly all about. When I was reading Dan

Melzer’s article called “Understanding Discourse Communities”, I related it a lot back to my life

with my sorority. First, Melzer said “It took a few more meetups, but pretty soon I figured out

how to fit into the group” (Melzer 101). Even though I felt like Alpha Xi Delta was where I truly

belonged right when I joined, I needed to hang with the other girls first to know how to fit in and

match their energy, without changing anything about myself. Next, Melzer said, “Writing

teachers and scholars have come up with the concept of “discourse community” to describe a

community of people who share the same goals, the same methods of communicating, the same

genres, and the same lexis (specialized language)” (Melzer 102). The girls in my chapter all have

about the same goals on how to be successful in life, the same methods of communicating, and

use about the same vocabulary when conversating with each other. Lastly, Melzer said,

“Communication mechanisms in discourse communities can be emails, text messages, social

media tools, print texts, memes, oral presentations, and so on” (Melzer 103). We have a couple

different apps we use to communicate with each other, like Slack, Flare, and Omega One. Even
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though I related to Melzer’s article more, I found a few key points in Sarah Seeley’s article

“Read the Room! Navigate Social Contexts and Written Texts” that I can relate to as well. First,

Seeley said, “The discourse community concept will help you examine, understand, and thus

succeed in those new situations” (Seeley 282). Joining Alpha Xi Delta has helped me learn what

to do in different situations in and outside of the chapter. Next, Seeley said, “Simply not

understanding the tacit rules, structure, and lexis of a community can make one feel ostracized as

an outsider to the ‘in group.’” (Seeley 285). For anyone who joins the sorority, it takes them a

few months to understand the rules and how we operate as a chapter. For example, if someone

doesn’t know the Alpha Xi Delta creed or chant, it may cause them to feel as if they are not a

true member. Lastly, Seely said, “I had to gain my own footing and learn to function as an

individual before I could participate as a member of the community and contribute towards its

goals” (Seeley 287). Although my sorority is a huge part of who I am now, I still know who I am

without my sorority because that’s the way I lived up until two months ago. Both Melzer and

Seeley’s gave a great understanding of what a discourse community is truly all about.

These are some screenshots from the Slack app we use to communicate with each other that most

people who read these would not know what they were talking about:
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This first screenshot is from one of the Alpha Xi Delta members on the executive board.

If I was not in a sorority, I would not have any idea what this message was trying to convey. In

other words, this message means “Don’t forget our first ceremony for the new members is

immediately after our weekly Sunday meetings! Wear appropriate black clothes (either a black

dress that covers a width of more than three fingers or a long jumpsuit).” This message was sent

the day after we found out we were in Alpha Xi Delta. Every year after bid day, the sorority has a

ceremony to welcome the new members, and we are required to wear a certain black dress code.

This second screen shot is from our Alpha Xi Delta president. I would also have no idea

what this message was trying to convey if I wasn’t in a sorority. In other words, this message

means, “Everyone needs paper and a pen to vote who oversees choosing the members for exec

and slated positions for the next upcoming year. If you want to run to be in this difficult and

time-consuming position, have something prepared to say why. We will be voting as a sorority

on one person per pledge class tonight.” This message was sent out a few weeks ago to vote to

for one person in each pledge class who will be choosing the exec and slated positions. The 5

people who got this position had to be at the house for 8 hours a few Sundays ago, because

choosing who oversees every part of our chapter is very important.

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Joining a discourse community right when I started college was one of the best decisions

I have ever made. I love having a group of girls I can hang out with and share common goals

with. I now believe that every person should join a discourse community that fits their

personality, whether it’s Greek life, a club, a sports team, etc. I have found so many benefits of

joining Alpha Xi Delta that has made me a better version of myself, even though I just joined this

past August. I love the discourse community I am currently in, and Alpha XI Delta will forever

hold a special place in my heart.

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Works Cited

Melzer, Dan. “Understanding Discourse Communities.” Writing Spaces, writingspaces.org/past-

volumes/grammar-rhetoric-and-style/.

Seeley, Sarah, et al. “Read the Room! Navigating Social Contexts and Written Texts.” Writing

Spaces, writingspaces.org/read-the-room-navigating-social-contexts-and-written-texts/.