Compare Contrast Two Persuasive Arguments
Should legendary coach Bobby Knight been fired from the University of Indiana? Does the punishment fit the crime? The two articles “The Knight Who Thought He Was King,” and “Knight Fall” try to answer these two controversial questions. Each of these articles present the debated issue in their own distinct ways. “Knight Fall” is written in a way that the reader really doesn’t know what side the author is choosing, that is until the last few sentences. On the other hand, the other article is very distinct, and the reader knows for a fact, just from reading the first few sentences, that the author is not what you call a “Bobby Knight fan.” Both of these articles use the three rhetoric appeals to help persuade their audience.
“He also thought -indeed, no thought to the contrary seems ever to have made its way into his head- that he was larger than the university itself…he signed the papers placed before him and then blithely violated the very agreement he supposedly had accepted, obviously on the assumption that the policy simply did not apply to a god such as him.” (Yardley.) Well if this isn’t straightforward enough for one to understand, then the reader has problems. This is how Yardley uses intrinsic ethos. He is an author for the Washington Post, in the style section, and writing about sports. One who is reading this article is not expecting a remarkable well-informed sports article. Throughout the article he uses a sophisticated vocabulary and strong, powerful words to grasp the attention of his audience. This article doesn’t exactly give the reader much leeway in choosing a side; there is not one good thing about Bobby Knight in this article.
Throughout this editorial, the author really tries to get to your emotions. He uses pathos to try to persuade the reader into not liking Bobby Knight. “He screamed at referees, berated and belittled members of his own team, heaved chairs.”(Yardley) He is trying to make you dislike Knight, for the things that he has done in the past. He is making Knight to be this immoral individual, who tries to hurt and inflict pain on others. He also states how Knight violated policies, only because they didn’t apply to him. All of this is mentioned just to get the reader to think “yea, I’m glad he was fired, he was a confused menace to society, who should have been fi...
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...be a coach today. “Knight Fall” also uses cause and consequence. It brings up the point that if Harvey (the student) didn’t come forward and complain about Knight’s abuse, then Knight probably would still be coaching. But that incident was only the tip of the iceberg. Knight had done so many things before that, and in the article, each incident is brought up, and questioned; whether if Knight had not done that, if he still would be coaching. Of course all of this means nothing; it’s all too late. It’s just the two different perspectives.
Well these two articles aren’t too hard to compare. One uses such vulgarity, that it makes such an impact on the reader, that the reader has no choice but to believe what the author is telling you. The other, a very informative and thorough article, lets the reader read, and learn, before “choosing a side.” Reading this will help you understand the situation, from both points of view, and then only to see the authors point of view in the last paragraph of the entire article. In the other article, Yardley doesn’t waste any time in stating his opinion, opening his article with disgust for Knight. These are two perfect articles to compare.
2. Indiana University was an enabler. Because Knight won with a clean program, the school let him get away with the kinds of things that would have ruined a losing coach.
...m of Knight supporters who thought that he was treated unfairly. These supporters obviously didn’t realize that Knight had a serious anger problem that needed attention. Knight was allowed to coach for 20 years with this problem being overlooked and most of his supporters don’t understand that. Knight was obviously a success as a basketball coach, his record shows that, but he was a tremendous failure as an example on how a coach should act. You just can’t expect to keep your job while treating people the way that Bob Knight treated people. Coach Knight undoubtedly deserved to be fired. The evidence against Knight is so overwhelming that I do no understand how he kept his job as long as he did. Knight’s long career as the second most winning coach in NCAA history was a failure in my mind because he could never understand that basketball is indeed only a game.
In “Don’t Lower the Bar,” he compares the educational standards difference with an athletic gap: “The best analogy I can give you is based in the fact that some coaches and athletic directions have noted a steep decline in the number of white kids going out for basketball. They feel as if they cannot compete with their black classmates. What if we addressed that by lowering the rim for white kids? What if we allowed them four points for each made basket?” (Pitts). The example of basketball makes the idea of the standards gap easier to fathom for readers who might not completely understand the issue. The analogy also puts into perspective the way minority students may feel when different expectations are set for them. Comparisons between one idea and another are also made in “Torture Might Work.” Pitts postulates that “...if you wanted to stop that carnage, it would be simple. Just make drunk driving a capital crime with instant punishment...We could execute the miscreants within a day...It would work...But we won’t make drunk driving a capital crime for one simple reason. It would be wrong” (“Torture Might Work”). By correlating one controversial topic with a seperate one, the author captures the reader’s attention and gets him or her thinking. When such a hot topic as drunk driving is introduced, any reader, regardless of whether or not he agrees with Pitts, is more inclined to hear out the argument. In addition, the writer uses an analogy in “We’re OK With Mass Murder”: ‘When the killer is not a Muslim, though, we treat the killing like rain, a natural vexation we lament but also accept because, what are you going to do? But this is not rain, just a different kind of murder” (Pitts). In this comparison, the author is using a simple concept -- rain -- to exemplify a much more complex and disputatious idea -- mass murder. This analogy makes the main argument much more perceptible for any audience. As an effect,
The author of “Sports’ Bully Culture” John Amaechi, throughout his essay focuses on the bully that very few consider, the coach. He presents an example that most, parents in particular, have heard about; Mike Rice, the former coach at Rutgers University’s. Amaechi recognizes that he can agree with the end result but he also recognizes the need for a different approach and continues to share his view. Amaechi then shares his own personal experience with this kind of bully when he was in university. Even though what he says appeals to many, some coaches, disagree with Amaechi view. He continues to show that these coaches are not just a select few, and the result of these coaches is severe. The essays purpose is to change the audience’s perspective
The scholarly article I chose was of great interest to me for several reasons. The case is an educational malpractice case in which a student-athlete said he was provided false information by his high school consolor and lost his basketball scholarship as a result. I was a student athlete in high school and sports are still a big part of my life. On top of that I am considering teaching and coaching after I graduate, making this a very relevant topic to me. In the next several paragraphs I am going to summarize the article and cases that it mentions, then I will try and decide what the authors intent was with writing this piece.
While college sports play a valuable role on university campuses, it is important for administrators to not lose perspective. That some football coaches earn more than university presidents, for example, is clearly wrong. Essay Task Write a unified, coherent essay in which you evaluate multiple perspectives on college support for sports teams. In your essay, be sure to: • analyze and evaluate the perspectives given • state and develop your own perspective on the issue • explain the relationship between your perspective and those given
Wertheim, L. (1998). The 'Secondary'. A Curious Career Phil Jackson Has Gone From Cloistered Child to Free- Spirited Player to Championship Coach. Somehow it all Seems to Fit. Sports Illustrated, 36 p. Unsworth, T. (1997).
“Be more concerned with you character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” These words of John Wooden are just a few out of many wise quotes millions of people, not just athletes, are inspired by today and likely will continue to be inspired by for a very long time. Basketball fans and experts consider John Wooden as one of, if not, the greatest coaches of all time. Much of his success is a result of his beliefs and coaching system. Knowing the background of Coach Wooden’s playing and coaching career plays a significant role in understanding how he practiced his beliefs with his teams and how his philosophy and success intertwined to set a precedent for the remainder of collegiate basketball.
In his essay, "The Myth of the ‘Student-Athlete", Gary Gutting argues that schools turn out more athletes than intellectuals, and that the word “intellectual” has become a swear word. I believe that this statement is very true and relevant to how mass media and education is shifting today. Take a look at how the school system is setup today, schools give out more financial aid and scholarships to students that are athletically gifted than intellectually gifted. Isn’t that backwards, shouldn't you be awarded more based on your intellect and work ethic more than whether if you can dribble a basketball or not? If this is the case then colleges are validating Gutting’s argument, that athletics is more important that academics. There are, of course, many cases of athletes who are primarily students, particularly in minor sports, but what about Division I football and men’s basketball, the big-time programs with revenues in the tens of millions of dollars that are a major source of their schools’ national reputation? Are the members of these teams typically students first?
The trend has become money first and books second or never. Most of the young athletes entering the draft early are immature, because of their age, and are completely unprepared for the tremendous salaries they will possibly be receiving. When these youngster see the enormous amounts of money they can be making in professional basketball, it seems as though education and morals become a distant thought to them. Sitting through lectures and writing research papers is considered a waste of time to these young prospects. Education is stressed daily in today’s society, with academics normally being emphasized over athletics. Yet, with today’s growing trend of players leaving early, it seems as though academics mean nothing to these young phenoms. In the summer of 1995, Sports Illustrated interviewed nine highly touted high school seniors about their college intentions. Four of these players expected to leave after three years, four expected to skip town after two years, and only one planned on staying to get his degree. “As all of this young talent continues to skip through college and enter the NBA, the quality of both games will suffer immensely.”(Blum, 43) This trend will eventually threaten the talent level and integrity of both the college game and the pros. The NBA and the NCAA need to sit down to discuss possible solutions to the problem.
As I was reading it, it reminded me a lot about the conversations I have and still have with my father about the value of UH athletics and the cost that’s unnecessarily given to the students at the University due to tuition increases and the over-reliance on University adjuncts to teach classes. It’s a point that we talk about often, especially after the Stevie Wonder Debacle at UH. Most recently, when UH approved the idea of giving student athletes pensions despite the UH athletic department running in the red. My father and I couldn’t believe it. With the athletic department running in the red, the question becomes, where’s the money going to come from? The answer to this is the student body, particularly with tuition increases and fee increases. I also liked this article because it reminded me of a similar argument made by HBO’s John Oliver of Last Week Tonight, wherein he argues that stadiums built for sports teams are a waste of taxpayer money. Due to my bias and familiarity with the topic, I preferred The Silence of the Rams article because of the mix of statistical information, historical context and simpler argument. That’s not to say that the Warriors and Thieves article wasn’t bad either. The fact that the author could take two different depictions and interpretations of Native American Warrior and make the case for how both positive and negative depictions of the Native American Warrior work to enforce the concept of whiteness in American Society, allowing white Americans to “legitimize” their usage of the Native American warrior motif, while simultaneously reframing and perpetuating the existence of the Native American Warrior as a static image stuck in the past. It’s a pretty neat way to add a ton of complexity to an argument that’s been used and argued many
The original intention of college athletics was to enhance the academic experience, and the NCAA came about due to the need to impose a set of regulations that would make college football safer. However, the big-time college sports of football and men’s basketball have become a multi-million dollar entertainment enterprise, and it appears that the NCAA has lost all concept of it’s mission: "to maintain intercollegiate athletics as an integral part of the educ...
The first personal traits that Coach Dale was forced to exhibit were his toughness and his assertiveness. On his first night in Hickory he met the men of town in the barbershop who were all willing to provide their experience and insight on the team and how to coach. Coach Dale had enough self confidence to know that none of these “insights” were going to help the Hickory team win basketball games and let them know they weren’t welcome by turning his back and walking out. Additionally, he was forced to demonstrate his toughness twice more on the first day of practice by telling the temporary coach, “Secondly, your days of coaching are over,” and then by standing up to the group of men after he dismissed Buddy from the team. These actions made no friends of the men; however, th...
Herbet D. Simans, Derek Van Rheenen, and Martin V. Covington focuses their argument on academic motivation of student athletes and what drives them to want to succeed in the classroom as well as on the court or field. Although Flynn also focuses on academic motivation of student athletes, he also discusses how colleges tend to spend more money on sports related necessities for the students instead of towards their education. Flynn’s argument displays how colleges are basically a business...
The language choice used by the two authors were very strong and persuasive. They were both anti vandalism and had strong view which they expressed very powerfully to the reader. The two texts could be mistake for a persuasive essay in some ways offering very little rebuttal or a side for the opposition. Both the texts although different show the hardship of the victims of vandalism and the use of emotions through quotes.