Kaitlyn Adams

Professor Sam

ENC 1101

October 18, 2023

Kappa Kappa Gamma as a Discourse Community

“Dream boldly, live fully.” These four simple words are displayed all over the Kappa

Kappa Gamma sorority house at the University of Central Florida. They serve as an inspiration

and as motivation for the many young girls that are a part of this discourse community. Though

an English assignment and sorority life are usually seen as two very different things with no

similarities or correlation, my purpose of this essay is to spark the idea that discourse

communities are all around us in our daily life. This is because a discourse community is “a

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

genres, and the same lexis (specialized language)” (Melzer 2020) as defined by John Swales in

article “Understanding Discourse Communities.’

Images 1 and 2 display locations in the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority

house that are seen when first walking into the house and when
entering the chapter/dining room.
 These are just a few images of this “motto” located in the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority

house. These are placed in spots that members walk past every day. This is one of the many

things which fulfill the six features that are paraphrased by Dan Melzer, from original ideas from

John Swales. In my opinion, this fulfills the first feature, which is characterized as “ A broadly

agreed upon set of common public goals” (Melzer 2020). Many sororities have their own “motto”, which

serves as something that all members are encouraged to live by. Kappa’s motto being “Dream boldly, live

fully” reminds us of our common public goal to remember that to live fully, we must continue to set high

goals and dreams for ourselves. Though I have only been a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma for about

two months, I have already made such good friends and connections to girls who have these common

public goals as I do. This motto can also be easily seen on both the University of Central Florida Kappa

Kappa Gamma Instagram page as well as the Kappa Nationals Instagram page. The purpose of this

message is to encourage girls who may be interested in joining this discourse community and show them

what Kappa Kappa Gamma is about.

These images show that this motto is seen in both smaller

and larger Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority organizations.
 The second feature described from John Swales is “Mechanisms of intercommunication

among members”. We have both a group chat on the app “Flare” with all the members and a

Facebook for Leadership roles to post important topics on. These two, as well as our

“PhotoCircle”, which is a combined photo album serve as our “mechanisms of

intercommunication among members when we in-person communication isn’t always an option.

In addition to this, we have a weekly in-person meeting known as “Chapter”, in which all

sorority members attend, and we discuss and learn about topics relevant to us and our discourse

community. “Chapter” also ties into the third feature which is, “Use of these communication

mechanisms to provide information and feedback.” I attended my first Chapter this past

weekend, and it was a formal chapter, meaning that we all wear formal clothes and practice

formal rituals that have been passed down since 1870, when Kappa Kappa Gamma was first

founded. An example of one of these traditions would be that instead of replying “here” during

attendance, we use ‘εδώ”, which is Greek for “here” and pronounced as “ow two”. Since Kappa

Kappa Gamma is a Greek organization, it makes sense that we would use certain Greek words

and phrases. This use of a secondary language falls into feature five, which is that “A specific

lexis (specialized language).” We also use many slogans, catchphrases and abbreviations that are

specific to our community.

In addition to these slogans, words, catchphrases and abbreviations, members of Kappa

Kappa Gamma all share certain values. To become a member of this sorority, we had to go

through the Panhellenic recruitment process, in which we met girls from each sororities chapter

and discourse communities, and had discussions which we shared information about ourselves,

and specifically our values. An entire day of recruitment was dedicated to Philanthropy, where

we learned about each chapter’s charity organizations and what events and activities, they did
to raise money for their specific organization(s). Kappa Kappa Gamma has three different

philanthropies: Mental Health Awareness, Cystic Fibrosis and the Kappa Kappa Gamma

foundation. I would characterize our philanthropies as “One or more genres that help further

the goals of the discourse community”, which is Melzers fourth feature of a discourse

community. Our philanthropy is one of the things that made me love Kappa because I am a big

supporter of Mental Health Awareness. An important and influential figure in my life has

struggled with their mental health in the past, which makes our philanthropy hit close to home

for me and many others. Philanthropy is a common genre amongst all sororities and

fraternities, and we all strive to participate in other chapters events, rather than just our own.

I am interested in in running for our Director of Philanthropy position for the coming

school year. This is one of the twenty-four leadership positions that the UCF Kappa Kappa

Gamma chapter offers. Because of this specific number twenty-four, our leadership satisfies the

sixth and final of Melzers characterizations, “A threshold level of expert members (24-26)”.

(Melzer 2020) These leadership positions could be categorized as at the expert level, since

Chapter President and Vice Presidents of many different affairs are a part of this. Since it fulfills

all of Melzer’s characteristics, Kappa Kappa Gamma is verified as a discourse community.

In addition to Understanding Discourse Communities by Dan Melzer, others work such

as Read the Room! Navigating Social Contexts and Written Texts written by Sarah Seeley, Kelly

Xu, & Matthew Chenn Melzer also share knowledge on discourse communities. A piece of

information that I found interesting in this artifact was “Regardless of the discourse community,

gaining membership and authority involves recognizing the social context that surrounds

communication. It demands that we read the room.” With this being said, not every person will
belong in one community, and it is important that we read the room of this discourse community.

For me, ‘reading the room” would be examining the characteristics as well as values and goals of

that discourse community. I did this before joining Kappa Kappa Gamma and can say that my

goals and values align with theirs making this discourse community one that I am proud to be a

part of.
 Works Cited

1. Melzer, Dan. “Understanding Discourse Community.” Writing Spaces, 2020.

2. Melzer, Matthew China, et al. “Read the Room! Navigating Social Contexts and Written