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Leeza Lucas
Amy Cicchino
ENC2135
December 7, 2015
Breaking the Stereotype
A community is a feeling of fellowship with others because you share common attitudes,
interests and goals. Genre is a compositions kind, category, or sort. (Kleinfeld 5) Genre helps
categorize the different modes of communication we used in SGA and with each genre it
accomplishes a different way on how the student body perceives us. For two years, I was a part
of the SGA community at my high school. We were a group of 80 individuals in various grade
levels that applied to get in. In the beginning, I joined because the SGA advisor asked me to, but
I continued my membership because I truly enjoyed the work that we did. We set up
homecoming, multicultural week, prom, and other events around campus. SGA was a big part of
my high school career and made me the person I am today. I learned how to be a leader in my
community. We would have meetings bi-weekly discussing the progress of events and poll how
we should handle different obstacles we faced. Basically, without SGA my school wouldnt have
as many activities going on as they do now because administration doesnt have time to be
entertaining the student body. On average, SGA spends at least 7 hours a week making events
possible not including the events themselves.
Although it might seem as though SGA would be loved by the student body with all the
stuff we do, it was quite the opposite. Many students who were not in SGA thought that we did
unnecessary events such as dress up days, and we were all pretentious students that wanted to
force the student body into doing our events. However, they could not be farther from the truth.

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This stereotype exists because many time the students that make it into SGA are high achievers
that are very confident which is often perceived as rude and cocky. In SGA, we pride ourselves
on involvement and doing the best for our school. We would use many genres of communication
in order to convey this to the student body such as putting on events, communication using
twitter, flyers, and ketch-up with SGA. I want to end the dissatisfied opinion of SGA and show
that SGA is not there to be forceful but to help.
In SGA, we put on many events throughout the school year to make the year more
enjoyable for the student body. This genre is the most effective when trying to convey to the
student body the good intentions SGA has. One event specifically is homecoming. Our
homecoming is a weeklong event that includes spirit days, a parade, and at the end, the annual
homecoming dance. In planning homecoming, there are many frustrations that SGA encounters
while getting the theme and dress up days approved. First, as a group, we brainstorm ideas that
we believe the student body would like. Then we pre-plan every detail and prepare a PowerPoint
presentation that will be given to administration for approval. Although we put in copious
amount of work into planning, sometimes administration doesnt agree with our ideas and we are
forced to go with a safer and in all honesty, boring, plan B. Administrations negative tone
brought down the creativity and energy of the organization as a whole. The student body doesnt
know about that step in the execution of events so they often just believe that we are uncreative
people. We dont communicate this frustration to the general population because being the
liaison between the student body and administration is our job. When you sign up for SGA you
agree to be the person who bears the burden.
Many students dont understand the amount of work that goes into planning such an
event and that is most likely where their dissatisfaction comes from. The student body would

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express their unhappiness with our events by not showing up. For example, for the past several
years, we have had a homecoming parade that involved the court members, and all the various
clubs on campus. However, although this was the largest clubs participation event we have,
students still dont show to the event and claim that SGA is just doing extra work that doesnt
benefit them whatsoever.
In promoting this event, we would use simple language since we are trying to get our
message spread quickly. We are trying to show the student body that SGA as a whole is not what
our stereotype presents us as. For example, we would often shout into a crowd of student Come
to the homecoming parade where you can meet the 2015 Homecoming court members! A
constraint to this would be students not paying attention or simply ignoring us. Our intentions
with this method were to quickly and effectively get the word out about the event that would
bring our community together but instead it might have freaked out some students. Our original
intention was positive therefore this contrasts with the stereotype they already have of SGA and
will hopefully break the negative stereotype. Unfortunately, this event, in particular, is the least
effective way SGA has communicated their message of student body involvement and positive
school spirit.
Although this event doesnt communicate our message effectively, the homecoming
dance does. The day of the dance, SGA goes early in the morning to decorate the school in
preparation for the dance that evening. Again we use informal language in order for the student
body to perceive the dance as an enjoyable and fun event. This is different than the genre of
language we use for promoting our parade because instead of talking to a lot of students, we
would promote this event through our classes with starting simply conversations with others
about what they are wearing to the event or who they are going with. Students reaction with this

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is much more positive and relaxed, contrary to the parade. During the dance, students claim that
they can see the work put into the event and appreciate the work done. Most likely, students
reactions were influenced by the fun factor that came with the homecoming dance. However,
they really did appreciate our efforts. With their compliments, we know that our message and
purpose is being communicated effectively. Events like homecoming are the most effective
genre of communication when successful, that SGA uses in order to break the stereotype of being
pretentious people. However, we cannot always throw dances so other genres of communication
must be used to deliver our message to the student body.
The easiest and most conventional genre of communication SGA uses is through flyers
and twitter. These methods are little to no cost and are somewhat effective in getting our message
across to the student body. Flyers specifically, reply on the design more than the language to
show the messages that we are trying to communicate with them such as facts, dress up days and
positive messages. The design of the flyers was often simply with all the information students
needed and a large headline at the top that would grab their attention. Design is the visual
features of the composition. (Kleinfeld 15) A constraint with using this method was that some
students would throw the flyers away making the flyers lose their effect. With using this
language, you can tell that the SGA community is concerned with informing the student body.
The fact that the SGA is so concerned with this shows that they are caring and not selfish. This is
not the stereotype that is usually associated with SGA so many are slowly starting to see the side
of SGA that they were blind to before because of previous false assumptions.
The most effective genre of flyers is handing them out to people as they pass by because
it gives the student body a face to face associate with the work thats being done. This makes it
more personal and gets the student body to feel more comfortable with SGA. These flyers are

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often smaller than the ones we hang in the hallways and have more information. For example, a
flyer like this might have a picture of the location the event is at and pictures from the previous
year. In addition, it would have the events name and time it is occurring at with a catchy slogan
at the end of it. The design of these flyers were made to appeal to the students eyes, but a
constraint would be if students didnt find them appealing or they simply didnt read them and
threw them on the floor. If the student body understands the work and effort SGA puts into
making school more enjoyable, they will be able to communicate their ideas with us in order to
make school more enjoyable. Also, if they are more comfortable with SGA then the negative
stereotypes will end which in the end is the goal.
For our less social students that arent really into connecting in person with SGA, we
have a twitter for SGA in general and class specific to communicate with them that way. Overall,
the overall school-wide twitter is the most followed then the class specific one because it is
easier to find people. On twitter, we use very informal language compared to our flyer because it
is not a school space that is monitored by teachers and administration along with we only have
140 characters to tell people everything they need to know. We would use the conventions of
tweeting including using hashtags in order to connect with others who are tweeting about similar
things. This genre of communication shows that SGA is diverse in that we have multiple ways to
communicate with people and that we are into the latest social media trends. This method is
effective with heavy social media users and occasionally a majority of twitter users.
Unfortunately, the downside to using this method is that not everyone has a twitter and if they do
they dont know SGAs official twitter handle. Despite these setbacks, I still believe that this is a
very important way of communicating our message to the student body in order for the negative
stereotype of SGA to cease to exist.

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One genre of communication that was very effective in getting our message across to the
student body was ketch-up with SGA. In this SGA executives, go out during lunch wearing a
shirt that is very noticeable and asks random students what they would like to see SGA do in the
near future regarding events and their opinion of the work we have been doing recently. One
example of when Ketch-up was effective was on the first day it was done. Executives went out
during both lunch periods and come back with multiple ideas of what SGA should do. The shirts
helped tremendously in that it helped people recognize who is coming up to them. Many
suggested another raffle and others suggested an additional dance somewhere in between
homecoming and prom. We loved these ideas and started implementing them along with
planning them for the next upcoming school year. Some constraints to this are that shy people
would not contribute their ideas purely because they are too flustered to speak to strangers. SGA
figured that using this genre of communication would be the most effective because it would be
the best way to connect to the other students. Informal language is often more effective when
talking directly to other students because students my age dont often speak in an academic
language in their everyday conversations. This genre of communication shows that SGA wants to
hear other peoples opinion and care about what the student population thinks. This is opposite of
what the current negative stereotype is presented when SGA is mentioned.
In all the opinions of what SGA is and what it represents, unfortunately, there is a
negative stereotype. With different genres of communication, SGA presents itself to the student
body as a positive and spirited group of people. SGA can still improve on pathos used to
communicate with the student body because often, we forget to consider the feelings of the
student body because our own personal feelings get in the way. This relates to our negative
stereotype we have acquired because the student body assumes we dont care about them. Using

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these genres SGA will be able to change the perception that they have acquired and show the
student body who they really are and how they can help.

Works Cited
Kleinfeld, Amy Braziller and Elizabeth. The Bedford Book of Genres: A Guide and
Reader. Bedford, 2014.