Monday, March 10, 2014

Research Blogs #4 and #5

Alexis Moran
201- College!
Prof. Michael Goeller
March 6, 2014
Starting a Career: Greek vs Non-Greek
The topic for my final paper has come a long way for me since the beginning of this semester.  From the start, Greek life has always been my top interest because it is something extremely unique just to college.  Finding an academic and analytic subject within the topic was a challenge.  After looking through a few scholarly research archives, I’ve formulated a thesis that I will be able to investigate in multiple ways.  Greek life impacts many collegians lives in more ways than one.  One specific way is through preparing members for the future.  Their preparations include striving for academic excellence, creating strong career networks, and implementing time management.  I am going to research the differences between building a career as a Greek life alum with building a career as a graduate uninvolved in Greek life.  I will enter the discussion describing some of the experiences others have reported while being involved in Greek life in college.  As I continue on, I will look at the foundations that fraternities and sororities set for their members academically throughout their college years that could give them an advantage or disadvantage post-graduation.  Then I would like to research the successes or misfortunes that both Greeks and non-Greeks have experienced on their job hunts and seek out some possible evidence as to why or why not which group receives the results they wind up with.  
My main research question is: How do fraternities and sororities prepare their members for future careers in ways that differ from collegians uninvolved in Greek life?  This question is sufficient because it compares two different groups, those involved in Greek life and those who chose to not be involved.  Because it is two clear groups, there will be differences that are easy to discriminate from each other, making each argument stronger on both sides. It is important in a research paper to argue both sides and here there is no grey area where people do not fit into either category.  It is clear cut: a Greek college graduate or a non-Greek college graduate.   I think this research question is manageable because it is specific.  Finding articles, books, and other sources will be easier because I can eliminate less specific sources that will be irrelevant to my topic.  I also like this topic because I can perform in-person interviews with alumni or collegiate seniors applying for jobs.  They will be a reliable source because I can choose which questions I can ask to my subjects and I can work with the answers I receive.  
To analyze case studies and facts, I will mostly compare and contrast the results I find from my sources in order to verify the difference between truth and opinion.  I will also be able to categorize the relevancy of my sources by organizing my quotes into lists and seeing which source I gathered the most information from.  This source will probably be my primary driving force that will support my overall argument- once I finish my research.  
My plan of action is to look in education archives first.  I have a tendency to be hyper-organized so I would love to be able to research supporting arguments in the order that I will write them in the paper.  If I look in education based searches,  I’ll be able to find research in regards to academics during college.  There could be possible articles on Greeks excelling in specific majors or schools.  I might also look for minimum GPA requirements for Greek life at  certain universities and compare it to the average GPA of the entire university.   I was also considering looking in a business source for post-college research.  I would look for possible statistics or articles about personal endeavors of graduates who have been accepted to or denied of jobs and the reasoning that goes along with it.  Statistics could include percentages of Greeks vs non-Greeks hired at specific companies.  I also want to make sure that taking Greek life into consideration is the only difference between candidates.  However, it could be interesting to consider that a student did better academically in college because of the ideals introduced to him or her in his or her organization.  I just want to investigate how much Greek life can affect a member academically and professionally.   I could then analyze a specific company and look for qualitative reasonings behind the quantitative results.  As I continue on my research, I’m sure I’ll develop new plans of action that will help me strengthen my argument and complete my paper.  
Working Bibliography:
Grubb, Farley. "Does Going Greek Impair Undergraduate Academic Success?" The American Journal of
   Economics and Sociology: n. pag. Print.
Klopfer, Lisa. "Inside Greek U: Fraternities, Sororities, and the Pursuit of Pleasure, Power, and
   Prestige." Library Journal: n. pag. Print.
Robbins, Alexandra. Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities. New York: Hyperion, 2004. Print.
Warren, Lorraine, and Robert Smith. "Fraternity, Legitimacy and (His)Story: The Collective









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