Genre Analysis Paper
Harry Nguyen
Professor Pihakis
ENGL2089
October 3, 2013
Genre Analysis
Studying abroad was my biggest dream since I was just a kid because I always love travelling to new places, meet different people and learn about foreign culture. In my tenth grade of high school, I decided not to go to Vietnamese college like most of my friends but go to the States to get a bachelor’s degree in business. I got accepted by ten colleges in the US but I chose University of Cincinnati because of the scholarship and the co-op program of this school. However, after my first semester here at the University of Cincinnati, I found out that going to school every day is not enough to get me prepare for my career. In my sophomore year, I decided I needed to do something new besides attending classes. Therefore, I reached out to one of my friends in my learning community and he advised me to join Delta Sigma Pi, one of the two professional business fraternities on campus. The more I found out about the fraternity, the more I become interested into it. After doing interviews with the vice president of pledge education, I understood that Delta Sigma Pi would be the best organization for me to join. “Delta Sigma Pi is a professional fraternity organized to foster the study of business in universities; to encourage scholarship, social activity and the association of students for their mutual advancement by research and practice; to promote closer affiliation between the commercial world and students of commerce, and to further a higher standard of commercial ethics and culture and the civic and commercial welfare of the community.” (Pledge Manual) By joining Delta Sigma Pi, I not only got to know many new brothers who are in the same College of Business as me, but also make the connection I need in order to find a job for the co-op program. Therefore, my desire completely matches the goal of the fraternity and every other brother who I talked to before, which makes me more and more excited to become a new part of this community.
One of the texts that every member of our fraternity has to read in order to become an official brother is the Delta Sigma Pi Manual for Pledge Education. It provides information of the history, vision, organization, programs, data, duty of membership, chapter roll and leadership of the fraternity. The manual is also very important because on every weekend in a semester, potential brothers like me will have to do an examination containing questions from this book. In order to gain the membership of Delta Sigma Pi, each member has to get a score of 90% or higher, which is an extremely difficult score. Therefore, I and other pledges have to read and try to memorize this book every day so we can remember all the information inside of it, making the manual become the book-under-our-pillows. In my opinion, making the pledge students memorize this book is a good idea because in order to become a member of a long-standing and well-respected organization like Delta Sigma Pi, all members have to know and understand its history, goal and policies so we can feel proud to be a part of the brotherhood. The content of the book is also very informative. In only 50 pages, I can find all the information I need to understand the fraternity. Written in formal language, the book is designed in an eye-catching way with headings on every page so the reader like me can easily know what I am looking at. In addition, there are several brothers’ quotes and pictures showing history, places members smiling, giving a heart-warming feeling when reading the book. Furthermore, each section of the manual is separated by ten to fifteen sentences passage, making it easier for the audience to read and remember the content of it. This kind of structure helps the readers avoid getting bored from having to read a long book of history and policies.
I choose the Manual Book as the most important text of my discourse community because not only pledge brothers like me have to memorize this book to learn for quiz, I also observe many official brothers use the Manual as their guideline of working and studying. For example, in all social events, there are always designated non-drinking members of the fraternity who voluntarily drive other brothers home or solve any problem arising from the event. Furthermore, all the brothers I have met so far are really friendly and eager to help me with any question or problem I have. This proves that every brother memorizes and practices the rule of our fraternity just as stated in the chapter of “Risk Management, Insurance and Conduct Policy” from the Pledge Manual. In addition, the book also comes in handy in the time of recruitment because brothers use it to answer the history and benefits of joining Delta Sigma Pi to people who are looking to join our community.
The second most important text that all brothers in Delta Sigma Pi observe is from the Chapter Meeting once a week. My first encounter with this text was at my first chapter meeting, where the executive board presented themselves and Delta Sigma Pi to all potential brothers. The executive board of UC Delta Sigma Pi includes 15 members:
The positions of executive board make sure everything of the chapter working well and there is no job that is not covered. Every week, the executive board uses PowerPoint to present the information to the members. In each meeting, the president and senior vice president run the operation and all the other directors and vice presidents will come up and announce about the job they are responsible. For example, the vice president of community service usually starts the meeting by informing the members about the volunteer jobs that our chapter has to do in that week. After that, the vice president of scholarship and awards will continue and run a poll of the Brother of the Week Award. Every member has the right to nominate a brother who helped them or who they think has contributed the most to our chapter in that week. After that, all members vote to choose the winner from all the nominees whose names are listed on the PowerPoint. These examples prove that PowerPoint is a really helpful and powerful text that helps all the directors and vice president sending information to the members easily and quickly. In addition, the brothers get benefit from it because if any one somehow misses a part from the talk, they can look at the slides to understand quickly and know what they cannot hear. The content of the PowerPoint is usually succinct to keep the audience interested. Also, each slide has a picture presenting the job that the vice president talks about, making it more attractive to the audience. The structure of the PowerPoint is simple, with one or two slides for each vice president’s presentation, containing just enough information so the meeting would not go over the ninety minutes time limit of each meeting. In contrast to the manual book, people use both formal and informal language when presenting to make the atmosphere always fun and smooth.
In conclusion, Pledge Manual and the meeting’s PowerPoint are two powerful texts that help me and other brothers to understand more and more about Delta Sigma Pi and guide us on our study and career in the future. Although I am just a potential brother of Delta Sigma Pi, I already feel as though I belong to this family from all the studying and meetings I went to. Every brother acts as if they have known me for a long time and does not hesitate to help me with anything. I believe this community will continue to grow on me for as long as I study at the University of Cincinnati because it is the best organization I have found since coming here.
Sources
Delta Sigma Pi Manual For Pledge Education. 55th ed. Central Office: International Fraternity of Delta Sigma Pi, 2013. Print.
Professor Pihakis
ENGL2089
October 3, 2013
Genre Analysis
Studying abroad was my biggest dream since I was just a kid because I always love travelling to new places, meet different people and learn about foreign culture. In my tenth grade of high school, I decided not to go to Vietnamese college like most of my friends but go to the States to get a bachelor’s degree in business. I got accepted by ten colleges in the US but I chose University of Cincinnati because of the scholarship and the co-op program of this school. However, after my first semester here at the University of Cincinnati, I found out that going to school every day is not enough to get me prepare for my career. In my sophomore year, I decided I needed to do something new besides attending classes. Therefore, I reached out to one of my friends in my learning community and he advised me to join Delta Sigma Pi, one of the two professional business fraternities on campus. The more I found out about the fraternity, the more I become interested into it. After doing interviews with the vice president of pledge education, I understood that Delta Sigma Pi would be the best organization for me to join. “Delta Sigma Pi is a professional fraternity organized to foster the study of business in universities; to encourage scholarship, social activity and the association of students for their mutual advancement by research and practice; to promote closer affiliation between the commercial world and students of commerce, and to further a higher standard of commercial ethics and culture and the civic and commercial welfare of the community.” (Pledge Manual) By joining Delta Sigma Pi, I not only got to know many new brothers who are in the same College of Business as me, but also make the connection I need in order to find a job for the co-op program. Therefore, my desire completely matches the goal of the fraternity and every other brother who I talked to before, which makes me more and more excited to become a new part of this community.
One of the texts that every member of our fraternity has to read in order to become an official brother is the Delta Sigma Pi Manual for Pledge Education. It provides information of the history, vision, organization, programs, data, duty of membership, chapter roll and leadership of the fraternity. The manual is also very important because on every weekend in a semester, potential brothers like me will have to do an examination containing questions from this book. In order to gain the membership of Delta Sigma Pi, each member has to get a score of 90% or higher, which is an extremely difficult score. Therefore, I and other pledges have to read and try to memorize this book every day so we can remember all the information inside of it, making the manual become the book-under-our-pillows. In my opinion, making the pledge students memorize this book is a good idea because in order to become a member of a long-standing and well-respected organization like Delta Sigma Pi, all members have to know and understand its history, goal and policies so we can feel proud to be a part of the brotherhood. The content of the book is also very informative. In only 50 pages, I can find all the information I need to understand the fraternity. Written in formal language, the book is designed in an eye-catching way with headings on every page so the reader like me can easily know what I am looking at. In addition, there are several brothers’ quotes and pictures showing history, places members smiling, giving a heart-warming feeling when reading the book. Furthermore, each section of the manual is separated by ten to fifteen sentences passage, making it easier for the audience to read and remember the content of it. This kind of structure helps the readers avoid getting bored from having to read a long book of history and policies.
I choose the Manual Book as the most important text of my discourse community because not only pledge brothers like me have to memorize this book to learn for quiz, I also observe many official brothers use the Manual as their guideline of working and studying. For example, in all social events, there are always designated non-drinking members of the fraternity who voluntarily drive other brothers home or solve any problem arising from the event. Furthermore, all the brothers I have met so far are really friendly and eager to help me with any question or problem I have. This proves that every brother memorizes and practices the rule of our fraternity just as stated in the chapter of “Risk Management, Insurance and Conduct Policy” from the Pledge Manual. In addition, the book also comes in handy in the time of recruitment because brothers use it to answer the history and benefits of joining Delta Sigma Pi to people who are looking to join our community.
The second most important text that all brothers in Delta Sigma Pi observe is from the Chapter Meeting once a week. My first encounter with this text was at my first chapter meeting, where the executive board presented themselves and Delta Sigma Pi to all potential brothers. The executive board of UC Delta Sigma Pi includes 15 members:
The positions of executive board make sure everything of the chapter working well and there is no job that is not covered. Every week, the executive board uses PowerPoint to present the information to the members. In each meeting, the president and senior vice president run the operation and all the other directors and vice presidents will come up and announce about the job they are responsible. For example, the vice president of community service usually starts the meeting by informing the members about the volunteer jobs that our chapter has to do in that week. After that, the vice president of scholarship and awards will continue and run a poll of the Brother of the Week Award. Every member has the right to nominate a brother who helped them or who they think has contributed the most to our chapter in that week. After that, all members vote to choose the winner from all the nominees whose names are listed on the PowerPoint. These examples prove that PowerPoint is a really helpful and powerful text that helps all the directors and vice president sending information to the members easily and quickly. In addition, the brothers get benefit from it because if any one somehow misses a part from the talk, they can look at the slides to understand quickly and know what they cannot hear. The content of the PowerPoint is usually succinct to keep the audience interested. Also, each slide has a picture presenting the job that the vice president talks about, making it more attractive to the audience. The structure of the PowerPoint is simple, with one or two slides for each vice president’s presentation, containing just enough information so the meeting would not go over the ninety minutes time limit of each meeting. In contrast to the manual book, people use both formal and informal language when presenting to make the atmosphere always fun and smooth.
In conclusion, Pledge Manual and the meeting’s PowerPoint are two powerful texts that help me and other brothers to understand more and more about Delta Sigma Pi and guide us on our study and career in the future. Although I am just a potential brother of Delta Sigma Pi, I already feel as though I belong to this family from all the studying and meetings I went to. Every brother acts as if they have known me for a long time and does not hesitate to help me with anything. I believe this community will continue to grow on me for as long as I study at the University of Cincinnati because it is the best organization I have found since coming here.
Sources
Delta Sigma Pi Manual For Pledge Education. 55th ed. Central Office: International Fraternity of Delta Sigma Pi, 2013. Print.