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Christina Hannau
Logan Bearden
ENC1102-0048
28 January 2015
My Greatest Decision
When a high school senior ultimately makes their college decision, he or she has
officially chosen the community he or she wants to be a part of for the next four years. Although
this community can range in size, he or she will be given many opportunities to narrow down
and create smaller and more specific sub-communities. He or she will be immersed with people,
who are similar and different in many respects. Jocks and geeks of all shapes and sizes will be
attending said university, but every student will be given the opportunity to find their group, and
ultimately their smaller community amongst the greater university. In my college decisionmaking process, I primarily chose Florida State University for its different styles of communities
and the different genres that can be found within those communities. FSU offers Freshman
Interest Groups (a FIG) to narrow down people into their specific majors. I took a FIG under premed, specifically for exercise science majors. I argue that the pre-med Freshman Interest Group
uses two different genres to allow two diverse kinds of belonging within the pre-med
community. The two different types of genres that are seen within this FIG – lab reports and
Facebook – provide both a professional and casual form of communication, ultimately relevant
to the pre-med and science communities.
After committing to a school, a mandatory orientation will occur and that is where that
student will determine the classes he or she will be taking for the fall semester. During my
orientation at Florida State, I made one of best decisions, academically and socially, I could have
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possibly made for myself. Similar to what Richard Straub said in “Responding – Really
Responding,” every student has to find their why and figure out their purpose at any given
university and I know that my FIG helped me discover that purpose. My purpose was to serve in
the science community and to ultimately help others with the knowledge I would attain
throughout my time and experiences in college. I eventually hope to become a Physician’s
Assistant to serve those in need and aid physician’s that value help.
During orientation, my group leader continuously announced and advertised to our group
the pure benefits of joining a FIG (Freshmen Interest Group). A FIG is a set of classes that a
student can choose under a specific major. I joined a pre med FIG, specifically one for exercise
science majors. We took General Chemistry I, The Science of Nutrition, and Pre Calculus
together. He promised we would make friends similar to us, but we would still go to the same
large lecture halls as everyone else. We were also informed of the different genres of writing that
could be found within different FIG’s. For example, students who took FIG’s under the
education major would have to get accustomed to writing lesson plans under that genre. I was
warned in advance how many lab reports would have to be written and how this genre of science
would be relevant to my major. The FIG was a way to meet a smaller, more intimate group of
people and also be given the opportunity to be in the same classroom setting as most other
students and a way to be around people within the same community that would have to write in
the same genre. The main difference between a FIG and a normal class are the people you are
surrounded by. The FIG was one set of people that were in the same science community and
would have to write in the same genre. Also, the FIG helped students to learn of events that
would only enhance our Florida State experience both academically and socially. Our FIG
leader, the teacher, was a senior who endured the exercise science major, so she always provided
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us with helpful tips and helped to guide us through our journey at Florida State. She was
experienced in both genres so she could assist our group in many ways, especially for lab reports.
She knew what professors were looking for so she provided helpful tools and tips to watch us
succeed. She also helped to enforce the Facebook genre of this community. It allowed for a more
intimate, casual place for conversing with others within our community.
Although I was skeptical at first, I genuinely know that joining a FIG during orientation
for my fall schedule was the best decision I could have possibly done for myself to ultimately set
myself up for success. This tiny community has brought to me some of my best friends, my
greatest inspirations, and the best study group I could have possibly found at Florida State. It has
also provided the two extremes of each genre, lab reports and Facebook posts, together to form
one cohesive group of students and mentors.
Our FIG became a close group of students in a short period of time. On the first day of
school I distinctly remember finding people in my FIG and immediately exchanging phone
numbers. We would be stuck with each other for the rest of the semester, whether we liked it or
not. The different personalities ranged within our small group, and it worked. Our FIG leader
created a Facebook page, a medium for communication, so we could ask each other questions as
a whole group. This was our initial genre of writing and communication. It was a casual page
where each FIG student felt comfortable. People would begin posts with “Hey guys” and on
rainy days people would makes jokes like “Might be a little late to class, currently tubing down
these Tally rivers.” Also, the girls in different sororities advertised their events on the page and
different people in different clubs advertised fundraisers. It was an easy way to quickly relay
information to the entire group.
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The Facebook page for our FIG was our casual community where different students felt
comfortable asking questions. There were different mediums for students to express if they
agreed with posts are not, as well. For example, when our FIG leader, Gabi, posted on the page,
she generally received many responses and likes. She posted event times and settings like when
and where the involvement fair occurred or when and where the part-time job fair occurred. This
was an easy way to communicate and the most efficient way for the people in our FIG
community to receive important information. People also expressed their opinions on certain
topics, like having to walk to class in the pouring rain. This provided humor and allowed
students to feel more comfortable with this specific group of students.
Our Facebook page was only one genre of our writing in the class. Because we took
chemistry, we also took the lab section of the course. In this class, we had to write formal lab
reports that included a cover page, an abstract, a procedure, data, calculations, and a conclusion.
The cover page acted as ethos, making the process more credible. This noted exactly who wrote
the report, what the report would be about based off of the title, who the instructor of the course
was, and the TA who was present for the experiment. Next there is an abstract, which will
explain the actual experiment and ultimately it will help a future reader determine whether or not
he or she will be interested in reading the report. The abstract served as a quick overview of the
experiment and what exactly researcher anticipated on occurring – the hypothesis. Next there is
the procedure, a simple citation of what the lab coordinator has prewritten for the lab. The lab
manual was written by Stephanie Dillon, the head of the chemistry department, so she received
accreditation in every report submitted. The data serves as the logos of the report. It is the logical
means behind the experiment and truly demonstrates what the researcher has done over the
course of the experiment. The calculations state what the data means and how the researcher
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came to certain conclusions. Finally, the conclusion states the results of the experiment and if the
researcher achieved what he or she was hoping to achieve.
The Facebook page and the lab reports were the two main genres of writing within the
FIG. They demonstrated the abilities of each student in different areas. The chemistry lab reports
were more formal, while the Facebook posts were casual and often times amusing. Although
these genres come across radically different, they both achieve the same goal – they created two
different kinds of community. Overall, both of these genres were crucial to our FIG community.
The FIG serves many purposes, but ultimately it is for incoming freshmen that already
have a general idea of what they want to do with their lives. Freshmen Interest Group’s are
organized by major. For example, I took an exercise science FIG under the pre-med options. This
could be relevant to anyone in any major, but my FIG served mainly to exercise science majors.
Although a vast majority of us came in as exercise science majors, we still had a few nutrition,
biology, and athletic training majors. I absolutely believe that this is the most effective and
efficient way to make friends similar to you. It successfully creates a community of students that
have the potential to be friends and form study groups. It also allows students to more
comfortably ask questions and better understand what is going on within the major.
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Screenshots from the Facebook page:
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