The image of the college basketball player throwing the balls at the academics person has a very profound meaning. The argument behind the cartoon is that the balance between sports and academics is not equal. The image clearly shows that sports are viewed as more important than academics. The author of the cartoon may not necessarily agree with that viewpoint, but rather he/she is acknowledging how students and colleges tend to prioritize. Th college sports character is on the left side of the page and is the largest element on the page, as to draw attention to it. The cartoon is internally disproportionate. The size of the basketballs are larger than the body of the academics student. The basketballs and the player have knocked the books out of the academics person's hands. The academics are stereotyped by having the character wear glasses. It is illogical to associate a person's eyesight to their intelligence. The character is also wearing more formal clothing than the basketball player. The athlete has a large overall figure, insinuating that sports are bigger than academics. The athlete is swearing and bullying the academics student. The college sports player is number zero, which makes his character seem even less intelligent. The font of the words are not formal, but rather look like somebody quickly wrote them. The symbols in the text bubbles clearly represent profanity. It is understood that the player is saying the same profane word both times, yet the symbols used to illustrate this word are different. The academics person is being called a twerp. A twerp is defined as a silly or annoying person. From what can be judged from the cartoon, the academics character is neither silly or annoying. The misuse of the word twerp only further makes the college athlete look stupid. The student may be awkward and uncoordinated, as can be guessed from his posture and foot position in the cartoon. Both the academics student and the college athlete are stereotyped, but both have some truth to it. The cartoon can both be applied to high school and college students. It also is largely about the balance of sports and academics. There are plenty of students who both excel academically and in athletics. Of course, there are those who's lives solely revolve around either school or sports, and neither is a healthy lifestyle. It is not right to have your life be all about sports or athletics. In the end, academics are going to be more important the sports, unless there is a chance of playing sports professionally. Academics are what's going to get you a job in life. Regardless of which group you fit into to, it is important that each group respects the other.
Your conclusion is excellent. Sports are a side job to academics, and academics should be students highest concern. I think your argument is the correct one. Especially around here, people only focus on sports, and have nothing to fall back on once they can no longer play.
Justin, I think you did a fantastic job discussing each of the pieces in the visual rhetoric example. I think you make many valid arguments about the way people perceive these two ideas. It's the truth that people think sports are a dominating factor when in reality academics are more important and result in a long lasting career.
Justin, Your blog is very well written. You use very good vocabulary and your style of writing flows very well. You also make a good point of developing the different strategies used and you do not leave anything out. You make some really good points and bring to attention the importance of academics over sports, or at least the misinterpretation of that. Good job!
The image that contains Alex Rodriguez, a baseball player for the New York Yankess, and Lance Armstrong, a former cyclist that competed on the professional level has many satirical aspects and contains visual rhetoric. The satire of the piece is that both individuals used performance enhancing drugs to improve there skills. The caption on the piece says, "Sorry.. Gotta Go... My ride is here.." These words were spoken by Alex Rodriguez, commonly referred to as A-Rod, and I think they pertain to the fact that people jump on the bandwagon and think, 'if one person is doing it so then I could do it too.' A-rod soon turned into A-Fraud and Armstrong was stripped of his Tour de France trophies, the most prestigious cyclist race in the world. What these two men did was try and improve there skills but all that happened was their greed to be the best blinded them from the consequences. Eventually, these actions caught up with the two men and proper actions were taken to penalize them. If you notice Armstrong is depicted when he was in his prime and was a sponsor for Nike. These two had everything going for them and that all got wiped away. Armstrong was stripped of his sponsorship and banned from racing in any more races, and Rodriguez was suspended from playing in the MLB for one whole season. This visual rhetoric was created to show the consequences of allowing greed to shadow the truth and integrity of sports. In sports the most athletic and strongest are the ones who succeed the most. Instead of becoming the best athlete possible through hardworking and dedication people sometimes take the low road, which is using performance enhancing drugs.
Your introduction and concluding sentences were you're strongest points I believe. You clearly explained the image and its argument. You brought greed into the argument, which is not something I thought of when looking at that piece. Your summary sentences brought your whole analysis together!
I like how you mentioned greed, I thought that was an excellent point. You did a good job rhetorically analyzing this piece, and we have May of the say ideas. Man does it suck these two cheated, I had an Alex Rodriguez jersey and dozens of Livestrong bracelets, which are all useless now.
Dan, You gave an interesting overview of what the piece was trying to get across. Your use of the name A-Fraud was creative. Your third last sentence reveals the most about your analyzation. I enjoyed reading your blog.
Alex Rodriguez and Lance Armstrong both have put together unbelievable careers, in there respective sports. Rodriguez has done it all, he has 3,000 hits, almost 700 home runs, and has over 2,000 runs batted in for his career. Lance Armstrong dominated men's cycling from 1999-2005, and won the Tour de France seven times over that stretch. Rodriguez and Armstrong had everything going for them, they were both well liked as major sport athletes, and had big Nike contracts. The sad part about these two incredible athletes is that both cheated, both Alex Rodriguez and Lance Armstrong used performance enhancing drugs throughout their careers. That is why this piece of satire is well used, and why a Major League Baseball player, and a Men's cyclists go together. In the satirical piece, A-Rod is shown at the door of the Yankees organization, saying "Sorry... I gotta go... My ride is here..." meanwhile, Lance Armstrong is riding behind him on his bicycle. You could make several different conclusions of what this piece means, but I think it is showing A-Rod and Armstrong going off together to take performance enhancing drugs. The purpose of this visual piece of satirical rhetoric is that you can't trust anyone, and getting the edge in sports means so much that even the best people are willing to cheat to do so. The intended audience of this piece is those who participate in sports that have looked up to these two athletes, and for these people to always work for their accomplishments, and not take the easy way out by cheating. Alex Rodriguez and Lance Armstrong are two excellent athletes that decided to cheat by taking performance enhancing drugs, and as a factor to that now have unappreciated careers, and forever tarnished reputations.
Giving information about both athletes from the beginning really strengthened your argument. It shows how talented each other was and how the drugs corrupted that. I like how you brought trust into your interpretation, it shows that you really thought about the meaning of the piece in depth. You summarized everything up by saying cheaters never win and that this piece show present that message to younger athletes.
Frank, I liked how you went into some detail explaining the two men's careers. I think that it adds to the magnitude of just how much cheating affected their career. I think you did an excellent job analyzing the rhetorical strategies used within the piece.
Frank, I really liked how you explained some statistics, or data about the two athletes. I added a lot to your blog. The rhetorical analyzing of the visual text is really present within your blog. Good blog.
The school sports day visual text has an important meaning, a meaning that is meant for the world to see. The argument of this piece shows in today's world, people consider video gaming as a sport. They see it as more important than actual "sports" day. The visual text shows two, bigger men playing video games, gasping and puffing for air as they get into it. In the background, we see students cheering them along. They think a video game is more important than real physical activity. It's not. As we look at the two, bigger guys it looks like they do this a lot. They are bigger and it doesn't seem they get much exercise since they are huffing and puffing for air just playing video games. This visual text greatly interprets what is going on in the world today. It has good context which relates to the true message of the picture. It shows the true circumstance of this action displayed in the picture. Too many kids are playing games and being "lazy", we need to explore the outside world getting physical exercise as well. Video games are okay to play but not all the time. As humans we are required to get an hour of exercise a day, and that needs to be made a must. If this problem stays ongoing, it can affect our future society as well, including us and our kids. Although this piece shows a ongoing problem in our world today, it is satirical. It shows two battling it out playing a video, seeing who will win first while fans cheer them on. They are also just sitting in the middle of the "Sports Day" lot on couches playing the game on the TV, also on the "Sports Day" lot. The visual text really doesn't need background familiarity, unless you don't know what "Sports Day" Is or what video games are. This satirical piece is pretty explanatory, but can spark some curiosity. People may wonder why are they gasping for air, why are they "bigger", and why are there others cheering for them in the background. Well, the explanation was stated before, and it sincerely is a reoccurring problem each year in the world based on statistics. When we look at a visual text, we might just look at it for fun and laughs but sometimes they have a deeper meaning. Even though this picture was satirical, it also depicted an ongoing problem around the world, videos games vs. physical exercise.
Allie, Nice job on your blog! We wrote our blogs on the same image and we had very similar ideas on the way the artist portrayed everything. You go into more of a background of how a lack of exercise is a large problem in our society and your explanation plays very well on the reason the visual was created. Good job this week!
The image of the "School Sports Day" is a wake up call and a piece of satire that contains several types of rhetoric to persuade the audience. This cartoon is a satirical piece and the main strategy is irony. The visual is of children participating in school sports days. However, the children are playing a video game. The video game also appears to be a sports game, which plays on the whole tone of irony. The only words in the whole visual are the sign that says "School Sports Day" and the noises made by the two "athletes." The boys are panting, puffing, and gasping, noises normally associated with hard physical activity. The athletes are sitting in seats only playing a video game, so there is no reason to be struggling with the "sport." This is another strategy that the artist makes because he is playing in the fact that today's youth is looked at as lazy, out of shape, and sedentary. The boys playing and watching also do not seem like they are in the best shape, following the stereotype exactly. Some tactics used in visual pieces are often overlooked, but every piece of a cartoon is used for a reason. The fact that all of the students at the school are boys also is a subliminal message. Boys are viewed as sporty and athletic, especially from a young age. The point that all of the boys are either standing around watching or sitting playing a simulated sports game brings up the idea that actually playing the sport is not what is popular anymore. Most people grew up playing sports in the neighborhood or at school, but this is a hint that boys, or kids in general, are not interested on what's outside or what is real, but rather on technology. Finally, the artist uses his piece to get in a little dig about schools or adults. The fact that the school, in this scenario is letting this happen shows that the artist is poking fun at how schools encourage students physical activity or their lack of it. They are saying that students are told to be active, but then technology is pushed in front and takes over. This piece of satire uses many different strategies and tactics to persuade the reader and make them take a look at how kids are actually spending their time. This comic is a prime example of satire and shows that every word and image in a visual like this is essential to the meaning of the entire piece.
Rachel, Your blog is very good. Your analyzing of the visual text is very strong. I also picked the same picture and we have similar ideas, but some ideas are different and those different ideas you mention are ideas that I never would of thought of.
The visual of the college sports player throwing basketballs at an academic student. The main focus of the image is the balance between sports and academics. The image also presents stereotypes, strong, less intelligent athletes, and weak,intelligent academic scholars.the stereotypes are supported by the different sizes of the characters. Words with negative connotations are used to bully the academic person, also it can be assumed that the symbols are there in place of profanity. The stereotypes for both characters are exaggerated but they can be truthful. This comic can be applied to any educational program with an integrated sports program. It is pretty clear that some take sports more serious than school. There are cases in which an individual excels at sports and academics, so one is not focused on more than another, but sports should not focused on because unless a professional level is reached, an individuals will not be able to support themselves. Both sports and academics can play an important role in a person's life, but academics will be what allows an individual to support the lifestyle they choose.
John, Upon reading your blog I understand what is going on in that picture which means you did a pretty good job explaining it. I think that there is a lot of emotion involved in the comic which just adds to the point they are trying to get across. I enjoyed reading your blog.
The "School Sports Day" comic that I have chosen to rhetorically analyze contains many satirical devices. The piece is not directed toward any one individual. It is directed toward anyone who might stumble upon it. It creates pathos among a wide variety of people. Overweight people probably get upset when they see this comic because it is basically poking fun at them for not getting a sufficient amount of exercise, it angers people who do not like what the schools across America require of students athletically and it is most likely viewed as humorous to those who do get a healthy amount of exercise. The piece is exaggerating the severity of obesity in the United States by labeling a couple of kids playing video games "School Sports Day" and by displaying them as sweaty and overworked just by playing a game on the television. The untied shoelace of the one boy playing the "sport" might suggest that he is lazy. The placement of "School Sports Day" above the kids is an example of incongruity because it is absurd in relation to what the young men are doing in the picture. The comic also presents logos. The fact that everyone in the image is male might lead people to reason that women are not as interested in sports as men are. The purpose of the piece is to stir up thought and controversy among its audience which it is doing very successfully.
The image of the college basketball player throwing the balls at the academics person has a very profound meaning. The argument behind the cartoon is that the balance between sports and academics is not equal. The image clearly shows that sports are viewed as more important than academics. The author of the cartoon may not necessarily agree with that viewpoint, but rather he/she is acknowledging how students and colleges tend to prioritize. Th college sports character is on the left side of the page and is the largest element on the page, as to draw attention to it. The cartoon is internally disproportionate. The size of the basketballs are larger than the body of the academics student. The basketballs and the player have knocked the books out of the academics person's hands. The academics are stereotyped by having the character wear glasses. It is illogical to associate a person's eyesight to their intelligence. The character is also wearing more formal clothing than the basketball player. The athlete has a large overall figure, insinuating that sports are bigger than academics. The athlete is swearing and bullying the academics student. The college sports player is number zero, which makes his character seem even less intelligent. The font of the words are not formal, but rather look like somebody quickly wrote them. The symbols in the text bubbles clearly represent profanity. It is understood that the player is saying the same profane word both times, yet the symbols used to illustrate this word are different. The academics person is being called a twerp. A twerp is defined as a silly or annoying person. From what can be judged from the cartoon, the academics character is neither silly or annoying. The misuse of the word twerp only further makes the college athlete look stupid. The student may be awkward and uncoordinated, as can be guessed from his posture and foot position in the cartoon. Both the academics student and the college athlete are stereotyped, but both have some truth to it. The cartoon can both be applied to high school and college students. It also is largely about the balance of sports and academics. There are plenty of students who both excel academically and in athletics. Of course, there are those who's lives solely revolve around either school or sports, and neither is a healthy lifestyle. It is not right to have your life be all about sports or athletics. In the end, academics are going to be more important the sports, unless there is a chance of playing sports professionally. Academics are what's going to get you a job in life. Regardless of which group you fit into to, it is important that each group respects the other.
ReplyDeleteYour conclusion is excellent. Sports are a side job to academics, and academics should be students highest concern. I think your argument is the correct one. Especially around here, people only focus on sports, and have nothing to fall back on once they can no longer play.
DeleteJustin,
DeleteI think you did a fantastic job discussing each of the pieces in the visual rhetoric example. I think you make many valid arguments about the way people perceive these two ideas. It's the truth that people think sports are a dominating factor when in reality academics are more important and result in a long lasting career.
Justin,
DeleteYour blog is very well written. You use very good vocabulary and your style of writing flows very well. You also make a good point of developing the different strategies used and you do not leave anything out. You make some really good points and bring to attention the importance of academics over sports, or at least the misinterpretation of that. Good job!
The image that contains Alex Rodriguez, a baseball player for the New York Yankess, and Lance Armstrong, a former cyclist that competed on the professional level has many satirical aspects and contains visual rhetoric. The satire of the piece is that both individuals used performance enhancing drugs to improve there skills. The caption on the piece says, "Sorry.. Gotta Go... My ride is here.." These words were spoken by Alex Rodriguez, commonly referred to as A-Rod, and I think they pertain to the fact that people jump on the bandwagon and think, 'if one person is doing it so then I could do it too.' A-rod soon turned into A-Fraud and Armstrong was stripped of his Tour de France trophies, the most prestigious cyclist race in the world. What these two men did was try and improve there skills but all that happened was their greed to be the best blinded them from the consequences. Eventually, these actions caught up with the two men and proper actions were taken to penalize them. If you notice Armstrong is depicted when he was in his prime and was a sponsor for Nike. These two had everything going for them and that all got wiped away. Armstrong was stripped of his sponsorship and banned from racing in any more races, and Rodriguez was suspended from playing in the MLB for one whole season. This visual rhetoric was created to show the consequences of allowing greed to shadow the truth and integrity of sports. In sports the most athletic and strongest are the ones who succeed the most. Instead of becoming the best athlete possible through hardworking and dedication people sometimes take the low road, which is using performance enhancing drugs.
ReplyDeleteYour introduction and concluding sentences were you're strongest points I believe. You clearly explained the image and its argument. You brought greed into the argument, which is not something I thought of when looking at that piece. Your summary sentences brought your whole analysis together!
DeleteI like how you mentioned greed, I thought that was an excellent point. You did a good job rhetorically analyzing this piece, and we have May of the say ideas. Man does it suck these two cheated, I had an Alex Rodriguez jersey and dozens of Livestrong bracelets, which are all useless now.
DeleteDan,
DeleteYou gave an interesting overview of what the piece was trying to get across. Your use of the name A-Fraud was creative. Your third last sentence reveals the most about your analyzation. I enjoyed reading your blog.
Alex Rodriguez and Lance Armstrong both have put together unbelievable careers, in there respective sports. Rodriguez has done it all, he has 3,000 hits, almost 700 home runs, and has over 2,000 runs batted in for his career. Lance Armstrong dominated men's cycling from 1999-2005, and won the Tour de France seven times over that stretch. Rodriguez and Armstrong had everything going for them, they were both well liked as major sport athletes, and had big Nike contracts. The sad part about these two incredible athletes is that both cheated, both Alex Rodriguez and Lance Armstrong used performance enhancing drugs throughout their careers. That is why this piece of satire is well used, and why a Major League Baseball player, and a Men's cyclists go together. In the satirical piece, A-Rod is shown at the door of the Yankees organization, saying "Sorry... I gotta go... My ride is here..." meanwhile, Lance Armstrong is riding behind him on his bicycle. You could make several different conclusions of what this piece means, but I think it is showing A-Rod and Armstrong going off together to take performance enhancing drugs. The purpose of this visual piece of satirical rhetoric is that you can't trust anyone, and getting the edge in sports means so much that even the best people are willing to cheat to do so. The intended audience of this piece is those who participate in sports that have looked up to these two athletes, and for these people to always work for their accomplishments, and not take the easy way out by cheating. Alex Rodriguez and Lance Armstrong are two excellent athletes that decided to cheat by taking performance enhancing drugs, and as a factor to that now have unappreciated careers, and forever tarnished reputations.
ReplyDeleteGiving information about both athletes from the beginning really strengthened your argument. It shows how talented each other was and how the drugs corrupted that. I like how you brought trust into your interpretation, it shows that you really thought about the meaning of the piece in depth. You summarized everything up by saying cheaters never win and that this piece show present that message to younger athletes.
DeleteFrank,
DeleteI liked how you went into some detail explaining the two men's careers. I think that it adds to the magnitude of just how much cheating affected their career. I think you did an excellent job analyzing the rhetorical strategies used within the piece.
Frank,
DeleteI really liked how you explained some statistics, or data about the two athletes. I added a lot to your blog. The rhetorical analyzing of the visual text is really present within your blog. Good blog.
The school sports day visual text has an important meaning, a meaning that is meant for the world to see. The argument of this piece shows in today's world, people consider video gaming as a sport. They see it as more important than actual "sports" day. The visual text shows two, bigger men playing video games, gasping and puffing for air as they get into it. In the background, we see students cheering them along. They think a video game is more important than real physical activity. It's not. As we look at the two, bigger guys it looks like they do this a lot. They are bigger and it doesn't seem they get much exercise since they are huffing and puffing for air just playing video games. This visual text greatly interprets what is going on in the world today. It has good context which relates to the true message of the picture. It shows the true circumstance of this action displayed in the picture. Too many kids are playing games and being "lazy", we need to explore the outside world getting physical exercise as well. Video games are okay to play but not all the time. As humans we are required to get an hour of exercise a day, and that needs to be made a must. If this problem stays ongoing, it can affect our future society as well, including us and our kids. Although this piece shows a ongoing problem in our world today, it is satirical. It shows two battling it out playing a video, seeing who will win first while fans cheer them on. They are also just sitting in the middle of the "Sports Day" lot on couches playing the game on the TV, also on the "Sports Day" lot. The visual text really doesn't need background familiarity, unless you don't know what "Sports Day" Is or what video games are. This satirical piece is pretty explanatory, but can spark some curiosity. People may wonder why are they gasping for air, why are they "bigger", and why are there others cheering for them in the background. Well, the explanation was stated before, and it sincerely is a reoccurring problem each year in the world based on statistics. When we look at a visual text, we might just look at it for fun and laughs but sometimes they have a deeper meaning. Even though this picture was satirical, it also depicted an ongoing problem around the world, videos games vs. physical exercise.
ReplyDeleteAllie,
DeleteNice job on your blog! We wrote our blogs on the same image and we had very similar ideas on the way the artist portrayed everything. You go into more of a background of how a lack of exercise is a large problem in our society and your explanation plays very well on the reason the visual was created. Good job this week!
The image of the "School Sports Day" is a wake up call and a piece of satire that contains several types of rhetoric to persuade the audience. This cartoon is a satirical piece and the main strategy is irony. The visual is of children participating in school sports days. However, the children are playing a video game. The video game also appears to be a sports game, which plays on the whole tone of irony. The only words in the whole visual are the sign that says "School Sports Day" and the noises made by the two "athletes." The boys are panting, puffing, and gasping, noises normally associated with hard physical activity. The athletes are sitting in seats only playing a video game, so there is no reason to be struggling with the "sport." This is another strategy that the artist makes because he is playing in the fact that today's youth is looked at as lazy, out of shape, and sedentary. The boys playing and watching also do not seem like they are in the best shape, following the stereotype exactly. Some tactics used in visual pieces are often overlooked, but every piece of a cartoon is used for a reason. The fact that all of the students at the school are boys also is a subliminal message. Boys are viewed as sporty and athletic, especially from a young age. The point that all of the boys are either standing around watching or sitting playing a simulated sports game brings up the idea that actually playing the sport is not what is popular anymore. Most people grew up playing sports in the neighborhood or at school, but this is a hint that boys, or kids in general, are not interested on what's outside or what is real, but rather on technology. Finally, the artist uses his piece to get in a little dig about schools or adults. The fact that the school, in this scenario is letting this happen shows that the artist is poking fun at how schools encourage students physical activity or their lack of it. They are saying that students are told to be active, but then technology is pushed in front and takes over. This piece of satire uses many different strategies and tactics to persuade the reader and make them take a look at how kids are actually spending their time. This comic is a prime example of satire and shows that every word and image in a visual like this is essential to the meaning of the entire piece.
ReplyDeleteRachel,
DeleteYour blog is very good. Your analyzing of the visual text is very strong. I also picked the same picture and we have similar ideas, but some ideas are different and those different ideas you mention are ideas that I never would of thought of.
The visual of the college sports player throwing basketballs at an academic student. The main focus of the image is the balance between sports and academics. The image also presents stereotypes, strong, less intelligent athletes, and weak,intelligent academic scholars.the stereotypes are supported by the different sizes of the characters. Words with negative connotations are used to bully the academic person, also it can be assumed that the symbols are there in place of profanity. The stereotypes for both characters are exaggerated but they can be truthful. This comic can be applied to any educational program with an integrated sports program. It is pretty clear that some take sports more serious than school. There are cases in which an individual excels at sports and academics, so one is not focused on more than another, but sports should not focused on because unless a professional level is reached, an individuals will not be able to support themselves. Both sports and academics can play an important role in a person's life, but academics will be what allows an individual to support the lifestyle they choose.
ReplyDeleteJohn,
DeleteUpon reading your blog I understand what is going on in that picture which means you did a pretty good job explaining it. I think that there is a lot of emotion involved in the comic which just adds to the point they are trying to get across. I enjoyed reading your blog.
The "School Sports Day" comic that I have chosen to rhetorically analyze contains many satirical devices. The piece is not directed toward any one individual. It is directed toward anyone who might stumble upon it. It creates pathos among a wide variety of people. Overweight people probably get upset when they see this comic because it is basically poking fun at them for not getting a sufficient amount of exercise, it angers people who do not like what the schools across America require of students athletically and it is most likely viewed as humorous to those who do get a healthy amount of exercise. The piece is exaggerating the severity of obesity in the United States by labeling a couple of kids playing video games "School Sports Day" and by displaying them as sweaty and overworked just by playing a game on the television. The untied shoelace of the one boy playing the "sport" might suggest that he is lazy. The placement of "School Sports Day" above the kids is an example of incongruity because it is absurd in relation to what the young men are doing in the picture. The comic also presents logos. The fact that everyone in the image is male might lead people to reason that women are not as interested in sports as men are. The purpose of the piece is to stir up thought and controversy among its audience which it is doing very successfully.
ReplyDelete