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James Walsh
Mrs. Thomas
UWRT 1101-041
18 November 2014
Reflection: This was an easy paper for me to write. I spend most of my spare time with
my pledge brothers, so it was not a struggle for me to obtain the information needed to
start writing about the discourse community. There may be a few grammatical errors
here and there but overall I feel that the paper is solid.
The second draft of this paper is less choppy and I think it flows better than the
first. I explained some terms, and corrected small grammatical errors that I found along
the way.
My final draft of my discourse community paper was very easy for me to review
and rewrite. I fixed a couple more punctuation errors that I found and corrected them. I
also had another person proofread it.
Discourse Community
There are countless discourse communities all over the world. They come in
all shapes and sizes. The discourse community I chose to study is the Kappa Alpha
Order Pledge Class of University of North Carolina at Charlotte. A pledge class is a
group of members (pledges) who desire to become a part of the fraternity. Many
studies have been done on fraternities as a whole or even a specific fraternity but I
have not found a study on a pledge class. I will examine the Kappa Alpha Order
Pledge Class as a discourse community by being part of it, and interviewing other
members of the community. I will prove three stereotypes wrong in this paper. The

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stereotypes are; hazing still exists, fraternities dont care about grades, and all
fraternities do is party.
Methods:
I will research the fraternitys pledge class by interviewing the members and
attending meetings. This will be easier for me than anyone else because I am a part
of the discourse community and will be able to answer questions that people
outside of the pledge class would not be able to. I conducted one interview on
November 10, 2014 with Michael Holbrook, the pledge class president (PCP). I
asked him basic questions about the community such as how many members are
there, whats the objective of the group, and a bout the groups lexis.
Findings And Results:
The Kappa Alpha Order Pledge Class, Beta Nu, is a close group of 17 young
men whose ages are from 18 through 21. I was able to interview Michael Holbrook,
the PCP, and asked him why he joined the Kappa Alpha Order Pledge Class and he
said Because I want to be part of something bigger than myself with a group of
people who have the same ideals and mindset as I do, and I found it at Kappa Alpha
Order. They all work together to accomplish tasks at hands and listen to their
pledge dad, Marshall Keyes, in new member meetings about what needs to get done
that week. Communication is key in this group, in order to get the job done, they us
group-me app, texts, and social media to communicate with one another quickly and
efficiently. Within the group, there is a chain of command also. There is a Pledge
Class President (PCP), a Pledge Class Vice President (PCVP) and a Scribe.

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During my interview with Michael Holbrook, I asked what is the relationship
between old timers and newbies? He answered Well, within the pledge class there
isnt much difference because we have all been involved for the same amount of
time, we are just different ages. However, within the fraternity as a whole, we all
have big brothers. The big brothers are there for us to help us with homework, if we
have a problem that we cant figure out on our own and to ultimately help us
through the pledging process. Mitchell Juda was asked the same question after a
pledge meeting and his response was, Everyone has the same level of experience in
the group, the old timers would be considered the brothers who are already
initiated. We often turn to the new member educator for advice. Pledge meetings
were held in a lecture hall on campus and were formal events.
Since all the members have the same amount of experience, the next question
I asked was how are decisions made within the group? To this I got a variety of
answers; the PCP decides, we vote on it, the PCP, PCVP, and scribe decide together,
the brothers decide for us and the new member educator decides. It sounds
unorganized, but depending on what decision needs to be made is who is given the
authority to make it.
A common stereotype that comes with fraternities and pledging is the hazing
stories. Hazing is the practice of rituals and other activities involving harassment,
abuse or humiliation used as a way of initiating a person into a group. I have asked
members of the discourse community, and myself as being a member in it, can
guarantee that there is no hazing involved in the pledging process. When I asked
Marty Galusha about it he told me, Everyone on campus seems to think there is

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hazing involved and its sad that kids think that because that may be a reason why
they dont rush. Im extremely glad I rushed in the fall and accepted my bid because
I have made some of the closest friends Ill ever have. These are the guys who are
going to be at my wedding, be the godfathers of my kids, and one day lower me into
the ground. I wouldnt want to change that for anything. With being on a college
campus, there are always going to be rumors and people are always going to talk,
but people need to realize that hazing is illegal and is outlawed by the school, state,
and country.
Two other stereotypes attached to fraternities are that all they do is party
and they dont care about schoolwork or grades. This could not be more false, yes
fraternities do have parties, but they also raise the most amount of money for
charity and causes close to the chapter than any other student organization. Greek
life members make up the largest volunteer network in the United States. Also,
every fraternity and Greek organization has a GPA requirement to get in, and one
that has to be maintained all throughout membership in order to enjoy the things
that come with being a part of that organization.
While writing this paper, the Kappa Alpha Order pledge class was initiated
and became brothers. We have achieved our goal as a group.

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Works Cited
Galusha, Martyn. Kappa Alpha Pledge Order Class. Personal Interview. 10 Nov.
2014.
Holbrook, Michael. Kappa Alpha Order Pledge Class. Personal Interview. 10 Nov.
2014.
Juda, Mitchell. Kappa Alpha Order Pledge Class. Personal Interview. 10 Nov. 2014.
Swales, John. The Concept of Discourse Community. Genre Analysis: English in
Academic and Workplace Settings. Boston: Cambridge UP. 1990. 21-32. Print