Bush 1

Tavares Bush
Rebecca Agosta
UWRIT 1103-007
7 November 2014
Annotated Bibliography
Why did Jared Dobbertin choose to join multiple discourse communities around campus
such as joining the Student Government, Lambda Chi Alpha, and becoming an orientation
counselor?
Dobbertin, Jared. Personal Interview. 31 October 2014
In the interview with Jared Dobbertin, Jared started off with explaining why he chose to
come to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Jared is currently a sophomore
studying business. As a Chicago native, he planned to attended university in the south
because he wanted to go to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was
accepted to UNC and had everything planned out to go until he realized that he just could
not afford the out of state tuition. Due to these circumstances, he elected to enroll at
University of North Carolina at Charlotte with the plan to transfer after one year of
attendance. Jared expressed the reason why he changed his mind on transferring strictly
due to the fact of his involvement in discourse communities on campus. If Jared went to
UNC he would been a regular student that was not involved what so ever on campus.
During the first week of his freshman year he decided to rush for a fraternity named
Lambda Chi Alpha after being notified of the strict no hazing policy on campus. He never
had any interest in joining a fraternity in fact he hated the thought of it in high school.
This is because in Chicago, fraternities haze and Jared lost a close friend weeks prior to
attending the university due to hazing. There result of him joining Lambda Chi Alpha
lead him to a choice to run for a senator position in the Student Government Association.

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His big (mentor) was the vice president of SGA that year he decided to run. Jared made
sure to mention that the reason why he became so determined to join different discourse
communities was because of his big. During the election process, Jared did not do any
campaign and believed that the reason that he won was because his name was on the top
of the ballet. Doing SGA really influenced him to become an orientation counselor on
campus. Jared said his main goal of becoming an orientation counselor was because, I
like to inspire students to stay at UNCC and not transfer. He wanted to use his story to
convince students to stay and help create traditions on campus. He enjoys the fact that he
is a part of multiple discourse communities.
The interview with Jared impacted my research greatly, mostly because he is the subject
of my inquiry. The interview uncovered many different things about Jared that most
people do not know about him. There was now an understanding on why Jared choose to
join multiple discourse communities around campus.
This interview is a creditable source of research. This is because Jared provided great
detailed answers that were very honest. During the interview he expressed his true
opinions rather than giving me a generic answer. The fact that he was so open made the
interview easier and more fun to go through.
After the interview I was left wondering with many questions. The questions had to do
with his interest in joining other discourse communities. Other questions included on
whether or not there was a future plan to remove himself from some of the discourse
communities on campus over time. I would like to know if he would want to do a full
eight semesters of SGA.
How could Jared Dobbertin use his experience in balancing his involvement in different
discourse communities to help him get through college?

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What positon does Jared Dobbertin hold in SGA and how does his participation effect this
discourse community?
SGA Organizational Ways of Means Committee Senate Meeting. Observation. November 4,
2014
In SGA, Jared Dobbertin is a University College Senator. In addition to his senator
position in SGA he is also the chairman of the organizational ways of means committee.
This committee is in charge with the funding of all student ran organizations around
campus. The committee is also in charge of determining whether or not an organization
can become official on campus or not. Jared hosts these meetings every Tuesday in a
conference room in the back of the student government complex. The meetings always
start at 5:00 pm and typically lasts around three hours. As a chairman in this committee,
the chairman should have strict knowledge on Robert rules of order as well as UNCCs
Financial Procedures Act. Chairman should make sure the members of the committee
follow all of the rules as well as making sure everyone vote fairly. The hearing schedule
included many important organizations on campus that were going to come into the
conference room to give the committee reasons of why they should be granted the money
that they are asking for. The committee is very strict on how a grant is filled out. The
grants needs to be perfect in order to receive any funding this includes no handwriting
whatsoever because it has to be typed. Also in order for the organization to receive
money the organization has to find why this event will help UNCC and their students.
The committee is also not comfortable granting funding to an audience that is not over 50
percent of current UNCC students attending. Jared officially calls the meeting in order
and starts recording for UNCC school records purposes. For the first hour you there are
hearings that came in. Jared Dobbertin showed his leadership in this discourse

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community by making sure every member had the necessary information to clearly judge
if the organization could have funding. Also Jared had things that he had to say when
organizations stepped in the conference room. After that first hour Jared set aside an hour
to talk about the future of the committee. As a chairman, Jared always wanted to leave his
legacy as the first chairman who implemented the change of making organizations submit
their grants online. He told the members that this change will defiantly be ready by next
semester. In addition to these changes Jared was talking about making changes to the
Financial Procedures Act. This year the committee have granted too much money to
organization and SGA is only left with 40 percent of the budget to use this semester.
Based on this knowledge Jared decided to make the tough decision to stop giving money
to organizations for the rest of the semester. Jared knows that many organizations on
campus will hate him but he had to make the better call to make SGA can succeed. After
informing the members of that he ordered pizza for the members and emailed Niner
Media about his decision. Before the meeting ended he made sure to tell the members
that he will meet with the treasurer in order to forget how SGA can get more money so
that SGA can start with at least 50 percent of the budget to use next semester.
During the meeting I have noticed that Jared involvement was very important in the
discourse committee. I also noticed that he change the tone of his voice during and after a
hearing. He made sure to come off as serious but still made sure that every member is
comfortable. Without his involvement in this discourse community the community would
most likely deconstruct financially.
How could Jared Dobbertin choose to change his role in SGA for a greater impact?
What makes the discourse communities that Jared Dobbertin is a part of different from
each other?

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Swales, John. ''The Concept of Discourse Community." Genre Analysis: English in Academic
and Research Settings. Boston: Cambridge UP, 1990.21-32. Print.
Swales talked about discourse communities having six defining characteristics that will
be necessary and sufficient for identifying the group. Swales analysis can be used to
differentiate Jareds discourse communities from one another. Even though they are all
discourse communities all three of them have different characteristics. The first of swales
characteristics was a discourse community has a set of broadly agree common goals. This
is true for all of the Jareds discourse communities but they just have different goals.
SGA is a community that working to help with problems around the school and a voice
for the students. Orientation Counselor goes is to help incoming students feel more
comfortable. Lambda Chi Alpha is a community that goal is to complete many
philanthropy projects within their brotherhood. Swales second characteristic is that a
discourse has mechanisms of intercommunications among its members. Lambda Chi
Alpha and SGA have similar meetings that both use Robert Rules of Order but Lambda
Chi Alpha is less formal. Jared said that the language he used as being an orientation
counselor honestly depending on who he was talking to. He also make sure that he was
also very respectable. The third characteristic that Swales analyzed about discourse
communities was that a discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily
to provide information. The events that Lambda Chi Alpha will have will result in
different bonding experience with their members that an orientation counselor will have.
This is due to the fact that a lot of the orientation counselor work are done separately and
then they collaborate at the end. SGA also have a special bond because they have to
attend two meetings throughout the year. The fourth characteristic the Swales used was

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that a discourse community utilizes and hence passes one or more genres in the
communicating its aims. All of Jareds discourse communities have a certain way of
doing things together to accomplish the goal. The fifth characteristic is that a discourse
community has acquired some ideas. This is especially true of Jared being an orientation
counselor because he had a certain way of interacting with the students. Also Jared has
brought up some great ideas to SGA that were defiantly implemented to help the
university evolve. The sixth and final characteristic that Swales utilized was that a
discourse community has threshold level of member ship and a suitable degree of
relevant content and discourse expertise. This is true of all of Jareds communities
because all three of them have different responsibilities due to the skills that you possess.
How does Jared Dobbertin maintain focus in all of the different discourse communities he
is a part of?
What will be the long term effect of Jared Dobbertin joining multiple discourse
communities on campus?
"Why You Should Encourage Your College Student to Get Involved on Campus." College
Parent Central RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2014.
College Parent Central has a great article on their website that talks about why college
students should be involved on campus. The reasons the websites gave was similar to the
benefits that Jared now has by just being involved and a part of many discourse
communities. There many positive effects for joining multiple discourse communities.
Jared Dobbertin now has many connections on campus due to his involvement in the
discourse communities. These connections have led to an on campus internship for Jared.
Jared has meet many people that share common interest. These people have become
lifelong friends. The website says that getting involved on campus will give you a great

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opportunity to meet new people. You never know who you are going to meet on campus.
This can result in great opportunities. Jared realizes that he would not have this
opportunity again to be in discourse communities like a fraternity and he wants to take
advantage of it. Also while being in these different discourse communities he recognized
that he wanted to change his major from studying science to studying business a subject
that he enjoys much more. If Jared was never an orientation counselor he would have
never have seen the university the way that he sees it now. Also his participation in SGA,
he now understands that he can have a real voice and make real changes to the university.
Another effect on Jared is that he has become a great public speaker and he also increased
his confidence. Jareds leadership involvement has helped him so much in life. There are
many things that he is going to be able to put on his college resume. One long term effect
of him joining multiple discourse communities is that he will always be able to tell
employers that he can multitask while being very effective. Also his involvement in the
different discourse communities has increased his support system and in result increased
his academic standing.
How can the effects of Jared Dobbertin joining multiple communities help him in the
future outside of college?