Hellen Tran

Unit 3 Final Draft

Source 1
Nguyen, Mai. Personal Interview. 11 October 2014.
In this interview, I am asking a past volunteer of the Riverside Arts Market to answer questions
relating to why she wanted to volunteer and what motivated her in the first place. Mai Nguyen is
18 years old and is a native of Jacksonville. From her answers I wanted to see how it would
compare to what I observed from my past experiences at the Arts Market itself. Thus, the
questions show how she, Mai Nguyen, identified in this specific discourse community. The first
question asked was Why did you choose to volunteer at the Arts Market instead of other
volunteering facilities? She responded that she wanted to volunteer at this site because she has
a passion in what she is volunteering in and volunteering here motivates her to get involved in
the community more. The next question was Why do you choose to volunteer? Did you
voluntarily volunteer or was it not your choice to? In reply she said that Well, Id like to be
honest. I was sort of forced to volunteer because I had to do a minimum number of hours of
volunteering work but I also did beyond the minimum because I ended up enjoying doing it.
The third question was, How would you describe this community or what words would you use
to describe this community? In response she said this place is pretty hip. The way it brings
together a mix of culture and art makes it awesome to volunteer here (and live close to here).
This supports my claim that people often choose where they want to volunteer based on their
personal interest and sometimes because of their location as well. This source helps me
understand my discourse community more because I learned that some people do not often
volunteer at first because they want to but because there is an external force motivating them to
at first. From this source, I hope to further see if there is any correlation or relationship between
gender identity and the amount of hours/reason for volunteering.

Source 2
is this an organization as an Author?

Bls. Volunteering In The United States, 2013. Web. 12 October 2014.

On this website, statistics and numbers were used to show data about volunteering in the United
States from 2009 to 2013. The statistics only represented numbers so opinions or reasons for those
numbers were not provided but left to the reader to analyze. For example, the chart showed the number of
volunteers divided by sexes. The numbers showed that the amount of men that volunteered in September
2013 was 26,404 versus the amount of women that volunteered in September 2013 was 36,211. Thus, the
data shows that on average more women volunteer than men do. The websites chart also shows deeper
divisions of people that volunteer like the amount of people who volunteer that are working full time, part
time, or not employed at all. Another division that was shown in numbers was the division in volunteers
by age. This source helps my study in volunteering discourse communities because ithas solid
information in numbers that support the argument in that a persons identity relates to their choice of
volunteering in the community. This source is will also meshes in with my other research because the
website provides an abundance of data in numbers that can back up my argument. For instance, I wanted
to research how people identify as, whether it is by income, gender, or race, and how that relates to their
contribution as a volunteer.

Source 3

William L, Hamby Jr., and Kristen M. Bowers. An Analysis of Volunteer Leader Behavior:
Self-Reported Measure [Abstract]. Academy of Research Journal.2013, Vol. 3, p8-21.
Web. 12 October 2014.
This abstract focuses on the leadership part of the volunteering discourse community.
Most of the time, the volunteering community is split between the volunteers themselves and the
volunteer leaders or volunteer coordinators. This abstract focuses on the leadership side of the
community by illustrating that there is a reliance on volunteers to lead other volunteers.
Therefore, this relates to identity because in this community, some may identify as a leader or
coordinator while others identify as just a volunteer. The abstract explains that communities or
organizations depend on volunteers to keep them running. It also explains that behavior among
the volunteers versus the volunteer leaders vary and are different. The conclusion was made by
testing to see if people displayed leadership qualities or not. This abstract relates to my other
research because it relates to how people identify themselves (specifically how they identify
themselves in the community whether they are a leader or a just a volunteer, or how they identify
themselves as either male or female, etc). This helps my research because it supports my claim
that a persons identity and how they identify themselves does affect their contribution to the
volunteering discourse community.

could you not find/access the full article?

Source 4
Meisenbach, Rebecca J., and Michael W. Kramer. "Exploring Nested Identities: Voluntary
Membership, Social Category Identity, And Identification In A Community Choir."
Management Communication Quarterly 28.2 (2014): 187-213. Business Source Premier.
Web. 12 Oct. 2014.
This abstract illustrates that how people identify themselves is not just one concrete label.
However, identity is more complex than it seems. Identity is not just one label but it is a mix of
different views of how someone (or others) sees themselves. Identities are said to be layered or
nested within one another. For instance, when someone is in a different location, they may
identify themselves as something different. At home, a person would identify themselves a
someones child whereas at school that same person would identify themselves as a student.
Therefore, identity is not always concrete but always changing. This abstract discusses how a
person would identify themselves and how that relates to the community they choose to
volunteer in or their desire to join. The abstract shows finding that individual activities and a
persons musical identity plays a role in whether a person joins a specific discourse community
(in this abstract, the authors are referring to volunteering in a choir organization.) This research
relates to my other sources because it discusses ones motivation to join a certain organization or
community. This source also helps my research because it illustrates that there tends to be a
reason or motivation that fuels a person to volunteer and to volunteer in a specific organization in
the first place.

Source 5
Levy, S. R., et al. "Willingness To Volunteer Measure." Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology
83.(2002): 1224-1238. Health and Psychosocial Instruments. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.
Italics

This abstract discusses the amount people are willing to volunteer depending on the specific
community. The three different communities discussed deals with volunteering with the homeless, senior
citizens, and sick children. The researches then made a scale from 1-10, 1 being that they were definitely
not willing to volunteer to 10 meaning that they were very willing to volunteer. To activities that would
be done within the discussed communities were either dropping off food, volunteering at a homeless
shelter, participating in a walkathon, or volunteering at a place of their choice by themselves for more
one-on-one moments. The researchers rated willingness by averaging the numbers collected. This source
helps my research because it discusses the motivation , or the amount of motivation, behind a persons
work as a volunteer. This source also made me question whether peoples amount of willingness to
volunteer for a specific community was because of their own personal desire to volunteer or because of a
societal expectation that it would be good to volunteer at a specific place. For instance, if someone rated
volunteering at a homeless shelter a 10, was it because they genuinely like to volunteer at a shelter or
because society expects people to volunteer to like to help out at shelters (because if someone rated a 0
for their willingness to volunteer at homeless shelter, other people would identify that person as someone
who is mean.)

Source 6

Marta, Elena, et al. "Identity And The Theory Of Planned Behavior: Predicting Maintenance Of
Volunteering After Three Years. Journal Of Social Psychology 154.3 (2014): 198-207.
Business Source Premier. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.
Italics

The abstract discusses how people may often volunteer but also questions whether or not
social behavior impacts their decision to volunteer. Often times people may volunteer here-andthen but the abstract questions the reason behind why people volunteer over a long period of time
(specifically over three years). To try to answer this question, researchers conducted a study with
two hundred and thirty Italian volunteers over the period of three years. The researchers wanted
to find out whether or not their identity played a role in the volunteers desire to volunteer and
their desire to volunteer over a long amount of time. The evidence the researchers received was
used to predict whether or not they will volunteer in the future. This abstract benefits my
research because it discuss the influence of time and how someones social behavior and how
they identify themselves can impact where and how long they volunteer. It also ties in to my
other sources because it involves identity (specifically how someones social behavior and
identity can predict whether or not they will volunteer in the future). Also, a question that I have
is whether or not if someone was forced to volunteer or volunteer because they had to, does
identity still matter? Does identity still have an influence on where or how long someone will
volunteer in a certain organization if they had no choice but to volunteer there?

The sources were used to help my research in the volunteering discourse communities.
These sources fit in with one another because they all somehow relate to identity and how
someone may identify themselves. However, they differ because the sources each discuss a
different topic or content. For instance, source five discusses ones willingness to volunteer
whereas source six discusses a persons social behavior and identity and their likeliness to keep
on volunteering in the future. Both of these sources discuss the act of volunteering within a
community. However, they differ with one another because they are completely different studies
conducted by different people. Both of these sources in the end focused on how a persons
identity or person preference (part of identity) impacts peoples choice to volunteer in a certain
organization or community. Also, the sources differ with one another due to their content but end
up sharing similar qualities because they focus on the relationship between volunteering and
identity. Another example would be between source two, which uses data and statistics, and
source four. In source two, concrete numbers and percentages are used to summarize data about
volunteers in the United States in 2013. While in source four, the definition of identity itself is
discussed. Both of these sources are similar to one another because source four illustrates that
how someone may identify themselves is an always changing thing and that people do not have
one solid identity but may identify themselves as something different depending on their
situation. While in source one, data is used to compare multiple identities with one another using
numbers. For instance, whether someone identifies themselves as either male or female, a full
time or part time worker, or whether someone is African American or Hispanic, etc. These two
sources differ in their content but connect with each other because one backs the other source up
using data and statics to illustrate that identity is varied and can affect a persons contribution to
a volunteering community. Another example of how these sources differ is whether these sources
are primary or secondary. Sources that were primary like the interview in source one had a
genuine point of view and helped my research in discourse communities because I was able to
see what was a volunteers true opinion towards volunteering. The interview differs from other
sources because other sources had researchers using other volunteers in an experiment so that the
researches can analyze the results but the interview didnt need an experiment to collect results
over a period of time, answers were just given at point blank. These resources fit together
because they contributed to one another. Although the content in each source was different, one
source had information that could back up research of another and could be tied in together to
help further my claim. For instance, source five discussed a persons willingness to volunteer at a
certain organization or community whereas in source four, the definition of identity was
discussed. The researchers looked at two different contents but they both tied to one another
because it discussed persons preference of volunteering and how someones preference and
identity could influence the place or choice of volunteering.