Research Proposal for Sorority Stereotypes Project

Corina Roman
Enc1102 Composition II
Professor Gomrad
February 27, 2015

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Introduction
Just by how you look, what you say, or how you act, people are going to judge you and
stereotype you. Some may intentionally judge you while others may not even notice what they
are saying is offensive. Oh you do ______? You must ______ all the time, a typical line when
someone is submitting you to a stereotype. Stereotypes are like judging a book by its cover, you
have little to none actual knowledge about the subject, so the little you think you know from
movies/television/internet is what you use to create a stereotype. Said stereotype(s) cause such
negativity and unrealistic views on the choices people make. I will be discussing sorority
stereotypes, (a problem I deal with every day) and why these stereotypes are formed and what
we can do to prevent them/disprove them.
Subculture
Greek life is potentially one of the best and worst things about your college experience. You
could be one of those people that knew when they graduated, they wanted to be a part of Greek
life on their future college campus. You could also be one of those students that hate everything
they stand for, think they are annoying, think they are pointless, or just think they are stupid. If
you fall into the first category then you are just like I was, right after graduation I already started
researching the chapters provided at UCF and began taking notes. Upon graduating, the opinion
gathered of Greek life is from what is seen or learned on television and movies, and actually
think that is a real depiction of it. I was one of those people. I would see on movies or television
the partying, the attention from fraternities, girls always being together what I thought was a
picture perfect college experience. So with this picture in mind I signed up for recruitment, and
have been a proud member of Zeta Tau Alpha, since! After being a member for a year now, I
recently saw a movie that was about sororities and had a heavy depiction of hazing, something I

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knew that was not tolerated in sorority life anymore. Once thinking about what viewers assume
about sororities after seeing a movie like the one I had seen, it made me think of what other types
of stereotypes people have about sororities. I selected sorority stereotypes because it is
something that I deal with frequently that makes me so frustrated. Specifically with ZTA at UCF,
we have extremely negative stereotypes: all they do is party, ZTAs do drugs, ZTAs dont
have good grades and the list can go on. Yes, people can do whatever theyd like in college
because they are adults that can make their own decisions including if they choose to party,
neglect school, or whatever the case may be. Our problem is that people will see one individual
make a poor decision or behave unethically for one moment, and assume that is something the
entire chapter teaches or promotes. In order to at the least minimize this, we will have to
advertise more of our philanthropic achievements and promote the philanthropic things we do
specifically for our community.
Plan and Schedule
To begin developing this project, I will start out with anonymous surveys and post them in the
UCF Facebook groups for students to select the choice that best represents their opinion, making
it anonymous will give students the opportunity to answer without the fear of being judged by
their opinion. Since I am a member of this subculture, I am very informed about our history and
our efforts of what we pursue philanthropically. To learn more, I will look beyond just our
community and search our achievements statewide, and nationally. Because I am a member, it
will be easy for me to interview some of my sisters on their opinions as well as students in other
Greek organizations (other sororities on campus or fraternities). I will be conducting research
online and in person via online survey questions as well as in person interviews in our sorority
house, other Greek houses, and any other places on campus that I can find students willing to

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participate. The easiest opinions for me to gain will of course be from my sorority sisters, as I am
with them on a daily basis, getting information from others that I do not see will be more
difficult.
Putting all the elements it will take for this project on a dated schedule will help me stay on track
and meet all deadlines. Spacing out elements appropriately will help prevent being overwhelmed
and having to do so many things in one day or short span of days. Please refer to Appendix1:
Schedule for Subculture Project for more comprehensive details about what is planned by certain
dates.
Graphical Elements
The graphical elements I plan to include are images and small clips from television or movies
falsely depicting life in a sorority. I will also be including graphs and tables from my online
surveys and field investigation interviews.
Writing Process
I will engage in the writing process for my final project by strictly following the dates on my
schedule so I am able to stay focused and on track. I will also make sure all my research
conducted will be explainable through words, not only/just pictures or graphs. I will take the peer
reviews into context very seriously because it is amazing feedback to receive from students that
are also doing this assignment. The most important part of my writing process will be making
sure the content of my project is completely unbiased.
Resources

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The resources that will help develop my final project are all the little steps I take in between each
element of investigation, whether it be an online survey, online video clip, or in person
interview. I will treat every assignment critically because that is essential to being successful,
seeing as how all assignments build off of each other and the next is just as important as the first.
Without a series of successful assignments, the final project will fall apart. I will conduct the
primary research through in person interviews in order for students to elaborate their opinions
that are limited through a survey. The research will start with an anonymous survey to gather the
general opinion of students at UCF, the questions being: what is your opinion of sororities at
UCF? (with 4-5 answer options). After collecting data from the survey, I will move on to in
person interviewing members of my sorority, members of other Greek organizations, and other
UCF students not affiliated with Greek life. I am choosing to use interviews and surveys as my
primary sources of research because that will be the best way to get attitudes and opinions from
students in my community about sororities, specifically the chapters on our campus.
Conclusion
As more movies and television shows continue to falsely depict the idea of what Greek life,
sororities specifically, is actually like, the more stereotypes will grow. While stereotypes are
usually formed from people outside of the subculture, stereotypes can also be formed by
members of the subculture of how they perceive others or their attitudes towards the outsiders for
not being members of the subculture. My main point with this project is to resolve the negative
attitudes and create positive stereotypes in regards to sororities on campus, it could even
encourage someone to become a member of a Greek life or be more accepting of this college
experience.

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Appendix1 Schedule for Subculture Project
Activity

Description/Details

Start by

Analyze rhetorical
situation

Stereotypes

2/20

Do preliminary
research
Come up with a
research question

3/1
Why stereotypes developed and how to resolve
them

2/20

Schedule UWC
appointment for
literature review

n/a

Find and read

library and Web
sources

3/5

Work on Literature
Review

3/10

Schedule
interviews and
other field
research

3/5

Do field research

3/10

Write out draft 1

of final project

3/30

Peer review

3/30

Do any additional
research

Complete by

If not enough useable information found in first

attempts at research

3/24

3/24

3/31

Revise

3/31

Prepare a works
cited list

4/2

Check in-text
citations

4/2

Edit

4/10

Prepare final draft

4/15

Proofread

4/20

Submit final draft

n/a

4/24