Annotated Bibliography

Joshua Comras
03/12/22
ENC1102
Professor Henken

College fraternities have been around for a long time here in the United States. Almost all

fraternities are beneficial to the communities around it. They benefit the community by hosting

events and fundraisers to help fight for their main cause. To do this these college fraternities

need to communicate with one another as a discourse community to set these kinds of events up.

In this research, we will be answering the main question of “How community service defines

Greek life as a discourse community.”

This is a very interesting subject considering that college fraternities have such a bad

reputation to them today. In reality, very few of the multiple different great fraternities actually

live up to that bad reputation. Most fraternities are more of a benefit to colleges, teaching young

men to work with one another through meetings among one another and other activities to make

a difference within their communities. Being someone who is involved with a fraternity, I have

always been very interested in the subject. Many fraternities have their own secret chapter

meetings where they discuss things only members of that fraternity are allowed to know. That

being said, I felt that it was necessary to conduct research on that main topic of how “community

service defines college fraternities as a discourse community” considering how interesting I

found the topic to be and considering its an actual question within the college world that should

be answered.

Doing this research I was able to find six different scholarly sources to help me answer

my question. Reading these I did learn that Fraternities are indeed a discourse community, since
every fraternity has a way of communication with each other and their members. I also learned

alongside that, that the way fraternities hold meetings with one another and plan philanthropy

events with other Greek organizations gives college students involved real life skills to help them

in the real world.

Asel, Ashley, “THE EFFECTS OF FRATERNITY/SORORITY MEMBERSHIP ON

COLLEGE

EXPERIENCES AND OUTCOMES: A PORTRAIT OF COMPLEXITY.” 2015, Oracle

Inc. This article explains the positivity which Fraternity and Sorority life has on college

students who are involved. The article talks about how students who are involved in

Fraternities have the benefits of being able to get some help academic wise, but also help

in real world activities like mainly volunteering. “Some researchers suggest

fraternity/sorority affiliation is associated positively with increased levels of volunteerism

and civic responsibility, and increased willingness to donate to charitable and/or religious

causes, as well as involvement in student organizations, general education gains.” (Page

1, Asel).

I chose this article because it explains how fraternities develop communication

and leadership skills for a part of the article, and explain the ways that they develop these

skills. They do this by giving examples of Fraternity communication and the different

ways they communicate with one another, answering my question of how community

service defines Greek life as a discourse community.

Bureau, Daniel, “Contextualizing social class and leadership in fraternity and sorority
 communities,” 2021, Wiley. This article explains the multiple ways in which fraternities

and sororities do things such as communicate with one another and how it gives members

the benefit of having skills for the future when they work real jobs.

I chose this scholarly source because it has the necessary information on how

fraternity members communicate with one another. Because the article mainly revolves

around skills gained by being in a fraternity or a sorority, they talk a lot about volunteer

service and benefiting the community through planned philanthropies which require

members of the fraternity to gather up together at chapter meetings and plan these events

out.

Druian, Mervyn“Connecting Past and Future.” 2017, ALPHA Omega (Fraternity)

This peer reviewed article focuses specifically on the Alpha Omega Fraternity, a jewish

dental fraternity originally established to fight discrimination in dental schools. Reading

through it, you'll see an explanation of the different types of philanthropies and volunteer

services the fraternity takes part of throughout the year.

I chose this scholarly article because it focuses on one fraternity and gives good

examples which answer my topic question “how community service defines college

fraternities as a discourse community.” They use good examples giving some insight on

how the fraternity interacts with other greek organizations and how they assemble

meetings to communicate and discuss issues and ways to help fundraise for an issue.

Muñoz, Susana, “Property Functions of Whiteness: Counter‐Narrative Analysis of Teach For

 America and Their Partnership With Black and Latinx Fraternities and Sororities,” 2019,

TEACH For America Inc. In this piece of information they explain how Black and Latinx

Fraternities hold different philanthropies for their main cause. “Black and Latinx F&S

purposefully engage in service and philanthropy that also contributes to the positive

development of Black and Latinx youth by empowering their communities.” (Page 3,

Muñoz). Along with explaining how these Fraternities along with some sororities help

raise money through philanthropy the author also explains some ways to help improve

their philanthropies with suggestions and recommendations. When explaining all of this

they go over ways in which Black and Latinx fraternities communicate with one another

through different meetings which include other sororities when they decide to host an

event that includes another organization or multiple other organizations.

I chose this piece of research because it contains the necessary and relevant

information to help answer my main question of how community service defines Greek

life as a discourse community. This article gives good examples along with real scenarios

which show the communication between members of a fraternity.

Perry, Brian “Tests of the Validity and Reliability of the Community Service Attitudes Scale,”

2014, Journal of College Student Development. This scholarly journal speaks on how

community service has been a requirement for college fraternities and all of greek life for

many years. “Many Greek organizations have service requirements for their members and

chapters,” (Page 2, Perry). Along with that this article speaks about how most members

of college fraternities feel about community service, showing that some members do not

look fondly of community service.

 I picked this scholarly journal because I found it to be interesting, also containing

the required information to answer my topic question of how community service defines

college fraternities as a discourse community. This is one of the best articles I could find

with examples of the different types of community service members do along with the

way these ideas are communicated with one another

Serrano, Jennifer, “Attitudes Toward Volunteerism by Fraternity Men,” 2014,

Eastern Illinois University. This scholarly peer reviewed article explains the research

collected through interviews with undergraduate fraternity men on “the significance of

brotherhood, the implications of mandated service, and the impact of completed service

explain the various attitudes fraternity men have toward civic engagement.” (Page II,

Serrano). Within this article you will find the information pertaining to the requirements

each fraternity has when it comes to volunteering and community service.

I chose this piece because it explains what men within a fraternity think about

Volunteer work and Philanthropy. This article shows the interview between some of them

and the researcher and while explaining to the researcher, they talk about some

communication methods that happen between the brothers of their fraternities. They

mention very important things such as chapter meetings which are the main weekly

meeting between fraternity brothers that are usually secret and discuss different events

such as philanthropy events.

Tull, Ashley “Are Fraternities and Sororities Still Relevant?” 2018, JSTOR.

This article focuses on the relevance of college fraternities and sororities. “Fraternities
and sororities since their founding have promoted scholarship, mentorship, and

community service” (Page 441, Tull). The article mentions the different kinds of

fraternities such as LGBTQ fraternities which fight for LGBTQ rights or colored

Fraternities which fight against discrimination in our modern day society with racism

being an issue. They explain how these fraternities were created and what they do today

to help fight for their cause.

I chose this article because I found it to be very helpful in explaining the different

ways in which certain types of fraternities operate to fight for their causes. They explain

the certain methods that are used in communicating with one another as a discourse

community.