Robyn Miner Source 4

Step 1)
A) Long, Larry D. "Unchallenged, Professed Core Values: Do Undergraduate Fraternity/ Sorority Members Actually Benefit In The Areas Of
                 Scholarship, Leadership, Service, And Friendship?." College Student Affairs Journal 30.2 (2012): 15-30. ERIC. Web. 11. Oct. 2016

B) Does Greek life impact students and institutions of higher education academically/ financially, specifically at Mizzou?

C) Before Reading: I chose to read this piece because I liked how the title of the article made it seem like it was going to challenge the thought that being in Greek Life will cause students to benefit in the areas of scholarship, leadership, service, and friendship. For my essay, I want to make sure that my sources offer many different ideas and points of view. Therefore, I assumed that this piece would investigate this statement and determine what was accurate or not. While Reading: I thought that this piece shed some light on previous findings regarding the areas listed in the title. I liked how the author discussed each area and then compared the results from the current study to those of the past. Finally, after reading I believe that this piece would be useful for answering my question and I believed this when I read the title. For instance, this piece changed the way I perceived Greek Life and that while some may be academic or service oriented, it does not mean that all members are going to excel in these areas.

Step 2)
      This article delves into specific aspects that relate to sororities and fraternities as well as other areas that stem off of it. The author first talks about each area and what other studies have concluded how these areas impact/ does not impact members affiliated with the greek community. Then, the author explains the current study he used and how the results were from Southeastern Institutions and their use of the Fraternity/Sorority Assessment developed by Educational Benchmarking Inc. These finding concluded that members gained a higher sense of friendship, development of study skills, critical thinking skills, commitment to service, management skills and career skills.

   This source offered a new perspective on areas like critical thinking and commitment to service and this confirmed my thinking on areas like these. To me, I think being apart of a sorority has made me want to give back and volunteer more as well as to work hard. This source offered a positive view of Greek Life and I liked that it was backed up by statistics and not just the author's perspective. I thought this source was valid and I liked that the author compared the findings of the current study to those of the past to show that while some things may have stayed the same, some aspects changed for the better. This led me to assume that fraternities and sororities have been making an effort to change these statists in a way that will uphold the values of the university.

     This source was not as consistent with the other sources I found because this article depicts sororities and fraternities in a very positive note and less in the middle. I will use this to show how determining the overall impact of Greek Life on students can be difficult and some findings may be different than others. I think I agree with this source more because it includes a larger population, which I think is important when conducting a study on this topic so that the results will be more broad. The dialectic synthesis of the sources reveal that the type of study can produce different results. However, none of these sources have not depicted the Greek community in a negative way.

    This source has made me want to look more into studies that included a larger population because I think that getting information and data from all different types of higher education institutions is very important for this study. I still want to find sources that go into how Greek Life impact the faculty, staff, and the overall community.