Literature Review #4

Wallace, Walter L. "Faculty and Fraternities: Organizational Influences on Student Acheivement." Administrative Science Quarterly: n. pag. Print. 

This scholarly article is shows the data and explanations gathered when the author, Walter L. Wallace, asked the question of how much Greek-letter organizations influence the academics of their members.  Through tables, graphs, and much analysis, Wallace shows the positive and the negative outcomes of the subjects of his study.  His leading argument highlights the distinct differences between Greek structured college experiences and non-Greek structured college experiences.  

This article was published in Administrative Science Quarterly, an academic peer-reviewed journal that publishes studies, essays, and dissertations mostly in regards to organizational studies.  It was established in 1999 and is still publishing volumes today.  It has published many educated scholars and is a reliable source because of its legitimacy in the academic world and it's wide array of published writers.

The information in this study that stood out to me was the data gathered through questionnaires given to a range of over 1,000 students at a given university.  All is important because it is clear and concise numbers.  The writer demonstrates transparency as he shows all of his given data and compares all of the information he gathered in well-organized tables and charts.  

“fraternity membership reduced most negative relations between peer-oriented social values and grade achievement” (661).  This quote is important because Wallace studied the positive impact that fraternities had on the students involved in his research.  This is also a good quote for my argument because shows a reduction of negative relations from two aspects of membership: social and academic.  

“a student whose expertise may be restricted to one particular activity, say getting high grades, is relieved from personally seeking well-rounded prestige in a variety of fields, say athletics, romancing, politicking, and others, in which he is not skilled, by his membership in a well- rounded organization” (666). This quote is also important for my argument because it shows that fraternities create well-rounded students who excel in an array of traits that non-members would not possess. 
This study is important to my argument because it is unbiased, it includes information coming from both Greek-letter organization members and students who have opted not to join Greek-letter organizations.  It is also scholarly because the author, Walter L. Wallace, is a professor of sociology and has performed research and surveys on this topic.  I can also use some of his tables within my paper to help strengthen my argument and give visual aid to my final thesis.